
Class ^__6_^I1 
Rnnk a e j 



GopyriglitN". 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



MtmiU €Ducattonal jHonograpl^js 

EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE 

ESTABLISHING 
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

BY 

HARRY BRADLEY SMITH, Pd.M. 

Director of Industrial Education 

in the New Tork State College for Teacher t 

Albany^ N, T. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
CHARLES A. PROSSER, Ph.D. 

Director of the William Hood Dunivoody Institute 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 



^(0 



r 



,s^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY HARRY BRADLEY SMITH 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



4 



t^ 



OCT -9 i3?6 



W^t 3Riberi(ttie ihtM 

CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 






PREFACE 

The purpose of this book is to suggest to a State, 
a city, or to any community some concrete and 
practical methods of determining what sort of 
industrial and trade schools it needs, what should 
be taught in them, and how to select and pre- 
pare the instructors who are to do the teaching. 
It endeavors to be specific, to consider details, 
and to base its conclusions upon trade conditions 
as interpreted by the best generally accepted 
principles of industrial education. 

It should not be confounded with any attempt 
to investigate and report on the educational 
systems now in existence or with suggestions 
for the modification of such systems, except as 
to the addition of trade instruction for men and 
women who are going to earn a living by a trade. 

It seeks to offer suggestions that may be fol- 
lowed by action, that may be used as the basis 
of actual school establishment rather than as a 
basis for written report. 

The general outline suggested itself to the 
author some years ago while working in the trade 
schools of Germany. The present book is sub- 

iii 



PREFACE 

stantially an expansion of this outline, modified 
and enlarged by subsequent experience and study. 
The writer wishes gratefully to acknowledge 
the assistance received in short discussions with 
Dr. David Snedden, of Massachusetts; Mr. 
Wesley A. O'Leary, of New York; Mr. Charles 
R. Allen, of Massachusetts; Mr. A. D. Dean 
and Mr. L. A. Wilson, of Albany, New York; 
and especially to acknowledge his indebtedness 
to Mr. Charles A. Prosser, of Minneapolis, for 
invaluable survey material, and to an address 
on "The Study of the Industries for the Purpose 
of Vocational Education,'' delivered before the 
National Society for the Promotion of Indus- 
trial Education in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 
by Charles R. Richards, of Cooper Union, New 
York. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction . . . . Charles A. Prosser vii 

I. Selecting the School i 

II. Making the Survey 43 

III. Selecting the Course 79 

IV. Selecting the Teacher 136 

Outline 163 



INTRODUCTION 

By C. a. Prosser 

Director of The William Hood Dun woody Industrial Institute, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 

Sitting in her rose-bower at Belmont, the shrewd 
Portia said to the winsome Nerissa, "If to do 
were as easy as to know what were good to do, 
chapels had been churches and poor men's cot- 
tages princes' palaces." It is equally true to 
say that if to get the proper vocational prepara- 
tion of youth were as easy as it is to believe that 
the schools should fit our young people for suc- 
cessful wage-earning, then the task would straight- 
way be accomplished. 

It is a rule of life and of service that most of 
the best things are most difficult to get and to 
hold. No one debates the benefit which would 
come to our boys and girls, and to the nation, if 
they were educated for efficient workmanship in 
some calling as well as for efficient citizenship. 
Indeed, we are just beginning to appreciate how 
much the latter depends upon the former. Yet 
the task of giving vocational education to meet 

vii 



INTRODUCTION 

the demands of our complicated modern life is by 
far the most difficult educational question which 
the country and its schools have ever faced ! 

Notwithstanding this fact, the American peo- 
ple, impressed with the great need of a system of 
education which shall fit for life and service, have, 
with an enthusiasm worthy of the greatness of 
their cause, rushed into the task of establish- 
ing vocational education faster than we have a 
knowledge of the facts regarding the wide variety 
of occupations so characteristic of American life 
for which our youth must be prepared; faster 
than we have teachers with proper experience and 
training; faster than we have gathered experience 
to guide us in dealing with the problem under 
American conditions; faster than we have been 
able to adopt carefully considered and carefully 
tested equipment, courses of study, and methods 
of instruction. What wonder that our discus- 
sions are academic, our theories conflicting, our 
wide variety of practice confusing, and our ef- 
forts in many quarters doomed to failure! 

The way in which this country has gone about 
getting vocational training is after all character- 
istic of the way in which we as a people get ahead 
in everything we do. When a wrong is detected, 
when a need becomes apparent, when a forward 

viii 



INTRODUCTION 

step is to be taken along any social, economic, 
or political line, we rush into the task almost en- 
tirely without any previous study and analysis 
either of the present situation or the remedy to 
be applied, crying, "Come on, boys, let's do 
something!'' 

As a result we usually spend years in ill-consid- 
ered experiments, conflicting schemes, and wasted 
effort before we arrive at any meeting of minds on 
even the principles which are to guide us in deal- 
ing with the question. There are no better illus- 
trations of this than the way in which the country 
has handled the tariff and the liquor questions. 

To be sure, our radicalism so characteristic of 
a democracy has not been the only moving cause 
of our lack of scientific procedure in dealing with 
the questions that beset us as a people. The lack 
of a forward-looking vision leading us to plan 
carefully for the future has been peculiarly 
characteristic of a country blinded by a prosper- 
ity built upon the exploitation of rich material 
wealth and optimistic in the face of apparently 
inexhaustible natural resources. To be where 
Germany and German efficiency are to-day we 
should have begun the movement for practical 
education a quarter of a century ago. 

The freedom of thought and of action in a 
ix 



INTRODUCTION 

democracy brings conflicting ideas and prac- 
tices that cannot be reconciled save through the 
acceptance of principles and standards that rest 
upon the indisputable basis of fact and experience. 
As a nation made up of forty-eight States the 
problem of getting concerted action upon vital 
questions affecting the common welfare, such as 
the regulation of the liquor traffic and the es- 
tablishment of vocational education, is that of 
dealing with forty-eight sovereignties, each hav- 
ing its own peculiar conditions and its own so- 
cial, political, and educational traditions. 

As we grow older as a people, as the disappear- 
ance of our boasted natural resources forces upon 
us the necessity of the conservation of our heri- 
tage and of the promotion of the efficiency of our 
human resources, as our swelling population 
presses upon our ability to support life, as the 
simpler give way to more complex economic and 
social conditions, we shall be forced to study our 
problems more carefully and to standardize our 
methods of dealing with them. Then we shall 
substitute conservation for radicalism, caution 
for sentiment, investigation for cheap enthusi- 
asm, standards for opinions, facts for guesswork, 
scientific procedure for ill - considered experi- 
ments, and the expert for the demagogue. 

X 



INTRODUCTION 

Indeed, the country is already making prom- 
ising beginnings in the application of scientific 
methods of procedure to public as well as private 
questions. The cost accountant and the scien- 
tific management expert are abroad in the land. 
May their tribe increase! Great national prob- 
lems are being taken from the hands of Congress 
and committed to expert commissions for study 
and recommendation. States have been even 
more active than the Nation in this reform. 
Bureaus of municipal research or their equivalent 
have arisen in almost all of the larger cities of 
the country to safeguard the taxpayer, not only 
against the dishonest use of money, but through 
wise city planning against its foolish use as well. 
Social workers and the statisticians in increas- 
ing numbers are seeking the causes of human 
misery and crime and an adequate remedy for 
them. The demand for properly equipped peo- 
ple to make scientific studies of our social and 
economic and political questions is so great that 
the departments of sociology, economics, and 
business administration in our leading universi- 
ties are being forced to make their work more 
practical and vital in order to prepare a growing 
number of young people for this service. 

The schools of the country have caught the 
xi 



INTRODUCTION 

same spirit. In the regular schools the desire for 
greater efficiency in courses of study and methods 
of instruction has already led to a great many 
studies or surveys, which have both measured 
the work of the schools as they are and have 
made recommendations for their betterment. 
Equally, if not more, significant have been the 
surveys for vocational education that have been 
carried on in the last three years. While voca- 
tional training in schools of less than college 
grade is, after all, only an infant in swaddling 
clothes, the effort to get it on a more scientific 
basis is well under way. 

The movement for vocational education, which 
is only about ten years old in the United States, 
met, as do all such innovations and radical de- 
partures from old ideas and old ways, with strong 
opposition in many quarters. Consequently it 
went through almost a decade of agitation and 
propaganda in order to get a foothold with 
schoolmen and laymen. That propaganda did 
its work perhaps all too well. No movement in 
education has ever taken hold of the imagination 
of any people as has the campaign here for an 
education fitting for a wage-earning career, un- 
less it be Fichte's call upon the German States 
for a system of education adapted to the genius 

xii 



INTRODUCTION 

of the German people. In fact, vocational educa- 
tion is not only well afoot with us, but mounted 
on horseback. In the absence of the vital facts 
about the vocations, carefully planned experience 
to guide and properly equipped teachers to in- 
struct, the movement has been in some danger 
of falling of its own weight. 

The period of agitation is over and the time 
for constructive work is already upon us. Per- 
sonally I should have preferred to see National 
Aid for Vocational Schools adopted five years 
from now. But since it was certain that a fed- 
eral bill making appropriations for the States 
was certain to pass in some form, it becomes the 
duty of those closely associated with the work 
to secure the passage of a bill which will provide 
for adequate national and state boards of con- 
trol, secure the gradual adoption of standards, 
and safeguard the proper expenditure of the 
moneys allotted to the States. With money go- 
ing to the States to stimulate them in under- 
taking on a large scale training in agriculture, 
industry, and home economics, the need for a 
careful and progressive study of what shall be 
done in vocational training and how it shall be 
done becomes acute! 

The need for information concerning the voca- 
xiii 



INTRODUCTION 

tions, particularly the occupations in the trades 
and industries, in order to plan systems of voca- 
tional training for the schools, has led to a num- 
ber of surveys. The first of these was the study 
made by the Massachusetts Commission on In- 
dustrial Education in 1906, which was followed 
by similar investigations by state boards and 
commissions, notably that of the Wisconsin 
Commission on Industrial Education, and that 
of the Indiana Commission on Industrial and 
Agricultural Education. The purpose of these 
investigations was largely to find the need for 
vocational education in these lines and to con- 
sider the broad administrative policies upon 
which through legislation the plan adopted 
should be based. 

Within the last two years large cities having 
the resources to meet the cost of thorough stud- 
ies have carried on surveys under the direction 
of persons of experience, to gain the facts which 
would help them to get the kind of industrial or 
commercial or household- arts education, partic- 
ularly the former, best adapted to their condi- 
tions and needs. Among these have been the 
studies made by the Richmond Survey, the 
Cleveland Survey, and the Minneapolis Survey. 
The first and last of these were conducted by the 
xiv 



INTRODUCTION 

National Society for the Promotion of Industrial 
Education as one of its means of serving the 
cause in a constructive way. The Society is now 
cooperating with the Indiana State Board of 
Education, and various local school boards in 
Indiana cities and counties, in the making of a 
survey for vocational education in various types 
of communities in that State; while the United 
States Bureau of Education is investigating the 
situation with regard to vocational education 
in connection with an educational survey it is 
conducting in the city of San Francisco. 

These surveys are predicated on the idea that 
they are not only a good business proposition, 
but that the facts they gather and the expert 
opinion they offer are necessary to any intelli- 
gent dealing with the many difficult problems 
to be met in establishing vocational education 
of any kind in the community. 

When a patient approaches a physician for 
treatment, the first step taken by the latter is to 
make a diagnosis of the situation before he offers 
a remedy. American communities, with all their 
justifiable pride in the many good things about 
the public-school systems, realize that it is ailing, 
is deficient in provisions for preparing boys and 
girls to meet the requirements for successful wage- 

XV 



INTRODUCTION 

earning and the highest success in modem in- 
dustrial and commercial life. The survey makes 
a diagnosis of the situation and suggests a remedy 
in the form of a plan or scheme to meet it. 

No competent American business man would 
think of establishing a manufacturing concern 
in a new place without making a survey — a 
careful study of all the important features of the 
location of the proposed enterprise. He would 
want to know, for example, the location of the 
site with reference to a source for raw material, 
competent labor, and desirable markets. He 
would look into the physical conditions of the 
site, its slope, drainage, and composition. The 
switching facilities for moving fuel, supplies, 
and finished product would be carefully investi- 
gated. Perhaps most important of all, his de- 
cision as to locating his business would depend 
largely upon the desirability of the community 
as a place to live and rear his family. 

So in the same way a survey for vocational 
education is a wise business proposition. The 
community is soon to be called upon to invest 
money in site, plant, equipment, salaries, and 
supplies for the purpose of changing raw mate- 
rial in the form of untrained youths into the fin- 
ished product of young men and young women 
xvi 



INTRODUCTION 

equipped with the knowledge and skill to be- 
come successful wage-earners in their chosen 
callings. In order that neither the money of the 
city nor the time of its young people may be 
wasted, the vital facts about its vocations and 
its vocational needs should be gathered and in- 
terpreted by competent people before the school 
is begun. If there is any field of education or of 
human service where the old adage, ^' Look be- 
fore you leap," applies with more force than in 
the establishing of vocational schools, the writer 
does not know what it is. 

Every community, before entering upon a 
program of vocational education, should make a 
preliminary study of the conditions to which its 
plan must be adapted. It may be possible for 
communities to borrow or copy their school 
organization and their courses of study for gen- 
eral education from other places, although this 
usually results disastrously. One of the most 
pitiable spectacles in education to-day is the 
rural community which has borrowed every 
feature of its work from that of a near-by city. 
Its manual training has no relation to country 
life. Its courses of study give no help to the 
worker in agriculture and lead away from rather 
than to the farm. All its work is aimed, not to 
xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

prepare country boys and girls for rural life, but 
to prepare an occasional and lonely graduate to 
meet the entrance requirements of the state 
university. 

In vocational education a community cannot 
transport bodily any scheme from another place, 
however well it may seem to meet the needs of 
the latter. Industries differ in kind from one 
community to another. When of the same kind 
they differ in grade and therefore in their de- 
mands upon workers. They differ in such things 
as the entrance wage they offer, the health risk 
to be met, and the opportunities for better wage 
and promotion presented. They differ in the atti- 
tude of employers and their willingness to coop- 
erate with the school by employing its graduates 
on favorable terms or in employing boys on a 
part-school, part-shop plan. Likewise communi- 
ties differ in the attitude of organized labor 
toward the school and toward recognition of the 
training given by the school as a part of the re- 
quired apprentice training. Communities vary 
from State to State in the age and the conditions 
under which a pupil may leave school to go to 
work. 

Even if communities could safely copy their 
scheme of vocational education bodily after that 
xviii 



INTRODUCTION 

of another city, they would not get very far. 
Thus far industrial education for the youth has 
been established for a very few trades, such as 
machine shop, carpentry, cabinet-making, print- 
ing, electrical work, automobile repair and con- 
struction, bricklaying, plumbing, and gas-engine 
work, in the case of boys; and dressmaking, mil- 
linery, cooking, machine operating, and junior 
nursing, in the case of girls. These fourteen lines 
are, after all, only '^ a drop in the bucket" when 
one considers that the last United States Census 
listed three hundred and eighty-six recognized 
occupations in the industrial and mechanical 
industries alone. 

Not all occupations are worth training for, it 
is true. Nor can the school train successfully for 
all occupations, some of which must be learned 
^^ under the conditions of the trade." But it 
seems clear that thus far we have only crossed the 
threshold of our task of providing training for 
the vocations in industrial and mechanical lines. 
Vocations are to-day highly specialized, and any 
training for them, to be successful, must be cor- 
respondingly highly specialized. The search for 
common elements in all the vocations, which 
could be given to the youth as a preparation for 
each and all of them, has been from the outset 

xix 



INTRODUCTION 

as certain of failure under modern conditions 
as the search of Ponce De Leon for the magical 
fountain of youth. 

Without precedent to guide them, upon 
which they may completely rely in meeting the 
difl&cult and complicated and highly specialized 
problem of providing vocational education for 
its citizenship, communities must base their pro- 
grams on a local study of conditions and the 
suggestions and recommendations of those with 
most experience in deahng with vocational edu- 
cation. 

Not all communities can or will provide sur- 
veys carried on by outside parties. In such cases 
the study if made must be conducted by the su- 
perintendent of schools or some other local per- 
son. Even if communities desired a survey by so- 
called '^experts," there are few persons at the 
present time with experience sufficient to equip 
them for the task. Communities are not accus- 
tomed to pay for such investigations out of their 
school budget. It may be that in some States 
such an expenditure from the school fund is not 
authorized by law. Too often local self-sufficiency 
opposes outside interference. In many quarters 
of every community there is an impatience if 
not contempt for expert service. While the 



INTRODUCTION 

money which a community would spend for a 
competent survey before undertaking any plan 
of vocational education would probably be the 
wisest investment it could make, communities 
do not always have, or at least they do not think 
they have, the money for ,such an innovation. 

For all these reasons, and for others that need 
not be given here, we may expect to see the sur- 
vey, conducted by persons of experience brought 
in from the outside, confined, in general, to the 
larger cities where philanthropy or an awakened 
public sentiment has made the establishment 
of vocational education on an extensive scale 
possible and imminent, and where the call for an 
expert study is insistent. 

Most of the surveys for vocational education, 
particularly outside the largest cities of the coun- 
try, will be conducted by local agencies of which 
in many if not in most instances the superinten- 
dent of schools will be the leader. It is for his 
benefit, and for that of others like him who want 
to know how to carry on an investigation of the 
questions germane to the proper establishment of 
vocational training in a given community, and 
how to translate the facts when gathered into 
a policy and a program of action, that Mr. 
Smith's monograph has been written; and to 

xxi 



INTRODUCTION 

all such his contribution will render the largest 
service. 

While the greater part of this little book is de- 
voted to the problems of the survey for vocational 
education, the author has, with commendable 
foresight, included in. addition a closing section 
rich in the information and suggestions it gives 
as to the steps to be taken and the best ways of 
getting, as the result of his survey, such things 
as a proper course of study, advisory committees, 
and trade agreements. The monograph is really 
a primer full of valuable analysis, illustration, 
statement of sound principles, and wise sugges- 
tions for the student of the subject or the admin- 
istrator facing the new and difl&cult problem of 
getting the right kind of vocational education 
started in his community. 

Especially to be commended is the first sec- 
tion, where in a colloquial style the author has 
set forth, with keen analysis and simple lan- 
guage, the educational and social principles which 
in his opinion should be observed in any pub- 
licly supported scheme of vocational education, 
and the questions that need to be answered by a 
survey of any given industry before the schools 
can determine either whether they should train 
for the industry or how they should train for it. 
xxii 



INTRODUCTION 

Whether or not we agree with Mr. Smith alto- 
gether in his statement of principles, we cannot 
be other than grateful to him for the force of his 
presentation and for the rich knowledge of vo- 
cational problems which his keen analysis shows. 

Mr. Smith presents the case for a program 
rather than a portrait survey. The latter is a 
study which contents itself with furnishing a 
picture of the situation, largely statistical in 
character, for a community where there is no 
definite prospect of the immediate establish- 
ment of schools. The former is a study which 
focuses upon a definite plan of action in a com- 
munity wanting to establish vocational schools 
at an early date. It has been aptly said that the 
portrait survey is best represented by a girl and 
an adding machine, while the program survey is 
best typified by a conference. 

Probably both have their place in the move- 
ment to get vocational education. The portrait 
survey is doubtless the slow but sure educator 
and moulder of public thought as the founda- 
tion of careful, intelligent action at some time 
in the future. The program survey is the con- 
structive agent which gathers from the trades, 
industries, and occupations, not only the perti- 
nent facts but the attitudes, the cooperations, 
xxiii 



INTRODUCTION 

and the help of all interests necessary to start 
vocational education aright in a community 
where intelligent public opinion is ready for the 
step and resources are available to finance the 
undertaking. 

There is a strong temptation in the making of 
any survey to lay perhaps too much emphasis 
on the literary and statistical side of the work 
and to shape the study with the hope that it 
may become a permanent contribution to the 
literature of the subject. Personally, the writer 
feels that the thing most needed and the thing 
from which communities will in most cases get 
the largest return is the survey which has its 
aim fastened upon the immediate usefulness 
of the study to the city it serves. From this point 
of view, not only must facts be gathered and in- 
terpreted and recommendations made, but con- 
ferences must be held, cooperations established, 
trade understandings proposed and perfected, and 
the whole community brought into an enthusi- 
astic and working support of the plan adopted. 
This is the point of view and spirit of Mr. 
Smithes contribution. 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL 
SCHOOLS 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

Our Present Footing 

Some years ago two gentlemen were traveling 
through a sparsely settled section of Western 
country and one of them asked a native how 
far it was to the next town. "About two hours' 
traveling," said the native, and turned again to 
his work. After journeying for another hour 
toward the town, they met another native and 
again asked the distance to the nearest settle- 
ment. "About two hours' traveling" was the 
answer. Two hours more the two friends kept 
on their way, and for the third time inquired of 
a native the distance to the next town. "About 
two hours' traveling" came the answer. "Well," 
said one of the gentlemen to the other, "I'm 
mighty glad we are holding our own." 

The industrial educator has many reasons for 
being "mighty glad we are holding our own." 

I 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

So swiftly has educational thought progressed 
along practical lines and so decidedly have the 
manufacturer, the trade unionist, and the trade 
worker changed their views on the subject of 
trade training in schools, that the industrial 
teacher has had to move rapidly if he did noth- 
. ing more than keep up. It must be confessed, 
too, that we have not done much more than 
*'hold our own"; and we ourselves are somewhat 
to blame for this. 

We have been doing a great deal of thinking 
along the line of practical trade-school education 
in the United States, but we have not always 
thought to the point. We have philosophized, 
theorized, and speculated too much, perhaps, to 
accomplish large material results. This is not to 
say that we have not progressed. There must al- 
ways be this period of theory and speculation 
and we are almost through it. In more than one 
State now we are beginning to find the real 
trade school. 

Need for facts 

The time has come when we must follow our 
thinking with action. We must study trade edu- 
cation as a concrete and business problem as well 
as an educational problem in order to know what 

2 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

to do to insure success. We must study each 
phase of the problem in order to ascertain 
whether that phase can show us that education 
for its particular business is or is not needed; if 
needed, just what is needed, by whom it is 
needed, and from whom it may best be ob- 
tained. What the country needs now are facts, 
and facts are always obtainable if you go about 
it right. Whenever the people of any State are 
ready to attack this problem in real earnest, 
they will soon find themselves developing an 
educational philosophy and program sufficient 
to assimilate, interpret, and act upon all the facts 
presented. 

With this point of view, then, let us turn to 
our first concrete study. 

Study the industries 

Industrial education depends upon the indus- 
tries. Every attempt to separate the trade school 
from a close relationship with the trade has 
proved disastrous. A study of industrial educa- 
tion from the educational standpoint alone will 
not do. If we are to prepare men and women to 
live in an industrial field, we must study closely 
the industry by which they are to live. 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

What industries to study 

What industries, then, shall we study? Obvi- 
ously those which are in the community and a 
part of the community which is undertaking 
to establish and pay for the schools. When a 
careful investigation has convinced a city or 
village that it has not within its confines the 
right kinds of industries in sufficient numbers 
to furnish good employment for all the graduates 
of its industrial schools, or that it is impossible 
or unwise for other good reasons to train exclu- 
sively for the home trades, it can then turn its 
attention to the industries of the State and 
Nation. It must then take care to select trades 
and occupations that have a steady and general 
demand throughout the whole country, such as 
printers, painters, barbers, and salesmen, rather 
than trades that are found only in selected spots, 
like miners, millers, glasscutters, and quarry- 
men. By whatever method we select the indus- 
try to be studied, the method of conducting that 
study will be practically the same. 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

What to study about an Industry ^ 

First of all let us determine whether this in- 
dustry is one that should be encouraged for the 
good of the community and the State. 

The work place 

Does it place its workers in clean, ventilated, 
and healthful rooms, such as those provided 
by the National Cash Register Company, the 
Shredded Wheat Biscuit Company, the National 
Electric Light Company, and many other in- 
dustries, or in damp, dirty, disease-breeding places 
like the older textile mills, a large number of the 
older foundries, oyster-handling cellars, and to- 
bacco-stripping plants? 

Hygienic nature of the work 

Is there anything about the occupation itself 
that affects the eyes, nose, lungs, etc., and so, 
from undeniable data, cuts down the age of its 
employees? This is the case in glass-blowing and 
cutting and in metal-polishing, except under 
the most modern conditions. It is generally true 
of paint factories, chemical process companies, 
and always true in drilling and blasting coal 
mines. 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Moral and social conditions 

Is there anything in the nature of the work 
that is morally degrading or anti-social, or is the 
community proud that it possesses such an in- 
dustry and glad to publish the fact at every op- 
portunity? Under the first head would come 
piano-playing in dance-halls, messenger service 
to dives and gambling-joints, waiting on table 
or bar in all-night cafes, and service in billiard- 
or pool-rooms. Distilleries and breweries, the 
padrone system and company stores in mining 
and milling plants would illustrate anti-social 
conditions not necessarily morally degrading. 

Standing of the industry with its workers 

It is often enlightening to know how an in- 
dustry appeals to the men who are employed in 
it. Is there a rather permanent list on the pay- 
roll, as in railroad work, jewelry-making, cut- 
glass industries, and the finer grade of steel mills, 
or is it continually shifting? What percentage 
of the men drift out of the trade or shop in three, 
six, or nine months? There is a constant shifting 
of personnel in the millinery and barber trades; 
but it represents for the most part a change of 
location only and not an attitude of indifference 

6 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

to the trade. On the other hand, the simpler 
processes in shoe factories and textile plants are 
very largely performed by a transient class of 
workers, and the canning factories are notorious 
for having a completely new set of hands every 
season. Such work cannot hold a very high place 
in the estimation of these workers. 

The wage factor 

What percentage of the total number of em- 
ployees is hired each year? What is the average 
wage of a beginner without experience in any 
trade; of a beginner with experience in some me- 
chanical line? 

Local standing 

Are the men in this industry considered a civic 
and economic asset by their fellow townsmen? 
To work for the Gould Pump Works is to have a 
standing in Seneca Falls; the same is true of a 
place on the pay-rolls of La France Engine Com- 
pany, in Elmira; likewise to hold a skilled posi- 
tion with the Maydole Hammer Company, the 
L. S. Starrett Company, and the Stanley Rule 
and Level Company is to have a national stand- 
ing as a craftsman. 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Interpreting the above 

The State or community that proposes to put 
its stamp of approval upon the training for an 
industry and to contribute financially to such 
training must determine at the start that the 
answers to the above questions are favorable 
to the progress of the community as an economic 
and civic imit and favorable to the young men 
and women whose careers the community is pro- 
posing to shape. If the answers to these ques- 
tions are unfavorable, the community should 
publish the fact and refuse to establish a school 
or class preparing for such employment. 

Child-employing Industries 

While the foregoing facts are most important 
from a general standpoint, it must not be forgot- 
ten that industrial education is primarily for the 
children of industr}^ if we may designate as 
^'children'' all minors up to twenty-one years of 
age. We must therefore study especially the 
child-emplojang industries. 

What are tJiey ? 

What are the child-emplo}'ing industries of 
3^our State? Are they healthful and stimulating 
both physically and mentally? If it was impor- 

8 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

tant to know this about industry in general, it is 
many times more important to inform ourselves 
regarding it in these cases where children are to 
enter the industry at early ages. Whenever the 
actual investigation shows that an industry is 
health-breaking and brain-deadening, a com- 
munity should refuse to train children for that 
industry. 

Children employed — number and age 

The next step is to ascertain how many chil- 
dren these industries employ, at what ages these 
children enter upon employment, and at what 
age most of them leave. 

Are numbers excessive? 

In this connection it is important to note 
whether the children are being exploited to such 
an extent that the numbers actually employed 
are in excess of what naturally might be expected 
in such a community. In many States the com- 
pulsory education laws prevent this state of 
affairs, but in the Southern textile mills and to- 
bacco plants young children are employed in 
excessively large numbers. Even in States having 
stringent factory laws, dolls, willow plumes, and 
artificial flowers are made in the homes by such 

9 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

numbers of little children that the percentage 
of minors employed in gainful occupations is 
much too high. Even when the industry may 
be found healthful and not excessively monoto- 
nous and deadening, it may be drawing children 
in such numbers and at such early ages that the 
efforts of the community should be exerted to 
check rather than increase the number of chil- 
dren going to work. 

In this case a compulsory education law may 
be of more value to a locality than a trade school. 
Here again a trade school for apprentices after 
they have entered the trade v/ould be better than 
one of lower-grade work having a tendency to 
lead pupils into the industry. A trade school 
not connected with apprenticeship should not 
be established in this case unless it could be of 
such rank as materially to increase the intelli- 
gence of the beginner, raise the age of entrance 
to the trade, and so cut down the influx of young 
children into that industry. 

The age problem 

This will necessitate a study of the age prob- 
lem from three sides — the actual average age 
at which the children are now entering, the age 
at which the employer prefers to have them enter 

10 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

and his reasons for the same, and the age at 
which a child, from the standpoint of the com- 
munity, should enter. Here again we may refer to 
the Southern textile mills and tobacco-stripping 
plants and to bell-boys and chore-boys for hotels 
and boarding-houses. The employers hire the 
youngest children available for the work because 
they will accept the smallest pay; in actual fact 
the children now in these Southern plants are 
below the ages allowed by our most sensible 
compulsory education laws; the community has 
been shown to suffer physically, mentally, and 
morally for its neglect of these future fathers 
and mothers. 

If the average entering age is so low that it 
endangers the welfare of the community's chil- 
dren and if the employer prefers to have begin- 
ners at these early ages because of low wages, as 
in these Southern mills, action should be taken 
to prohibit this: and most certainly no commun- 
ity would be justified in establishing a school 
training these children for such industries. If 
the entering age is too low because the employer 
cannot obtain sufficient help without these 
young children, or if they are put to work by 
their parents for real or fancied financial reasons, 
let us know whether the employer will agree to 

II 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

hire more mature beginners at a higher begin- 
ning wage if they have had special training for 
his work. Would not their increased efficiency 
enable him to get along without the younger 
children? Would not the increased earning ca- 
pacity of those at work make it possible for the 
family to keep the others a longer period in 
school? If it can be shown that older children 
should be employed and would be employed at 
proper wages if they were available, a trade 
school may be planned to train these children 
after they have reached a specified age, and thus 
increase the age of entrance and the earning 
capacity. 

Length of employment 

We must know also the average age at which 
children leave their employment, to see whether 
it is worth while to prepare them at all. It would 
be foolish to prepare children to enter an indus- 
try where between the average age of entrance 
and exit there was only a difference of three 
months, unless it can be shown that the short 
period of service is due largely to the inability of 
beginners to profit by the possibilities opened to 
them. In one of the larger shoe factories in cen- 
tral New York there is a constant change in the 

12 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

men employed in the cutting department; this 
constant changing, we have already seen, is true 
of the workers in our canning factories and of 
those in knitting mills and mills producing low- 
grade cotton textiles. Similar instability is found 
among the workers on the simpler processes in 
the making of harvesting machinery, and in one 
instance a foundry employing three thousand 
men reported twenty-six hundred yearly changes. 
Where men and women are continually shifting 
from one line of employment to another, the 
community cannot afford to finance their voca- 
tional training until a study of the trade shall 
reveal that there are skilled processes requiring 
special training which this shifting group has 
never received and which might be expected to 
hold them more uniformly in one industry. 

In the case of the shoe factory above referred 
to, there is ample opportunity for advancing 
these young men to more skillful and lucrative 
positions, but neither the firm nor its employees 
have sufiiciently recognized this fact. In the 
canning factories there are no more skillful and 
lucrative positions for the workers to look for- 
ward to, and in the foundry mentioned, the in- 
ability of foremen to handle their men was given 
as an important factor in causing this constant 

13 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

shifting. Thus, the short term of service alone 
cannot condemn an industry; there may be 
other evidences of a most hopeful nature. 

Opportunity in the Trade 

There may be, for instance, every evidence of 
neglected opportunities. For this reason where 
it can be shown that a reasonable percentage of 
children are actually employed and these at 
ages agreeable to the community's standpoint, 
the establishment and nature of the school will 
depend, not only upon the length of service dis- 
closed, but also upon the opportunities offered 
for advancement. Thus, in the machine trades 
and in printing, in our Northern woolen mills, 
and in our electric light plants, the age of en- 
trance upon employment is uniformly high 
enough to satisfy any community, kept so either 
by the employers or trade unions or by the na- 
ture of the work. In the cases of machine in- 
dustries and printing, however, the opportuni- 
ties of advancement through mechanical skill 
are larger than in the other two cases, because 
the gradation of work is more uniform and the 
sequence more definite. We must, therefore, 
know first that the nature of the work is com- 
patible with a much longer term of service, 

14 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

and, secondly, that if we prepare the child for 
this longer term there will be a constant possi- 
bility of advancement. For this purpose let us 
suppose ourselves considering one great child- 
employing industry. 

Are skilled processes ahead? 

Are there skilled processes beyond those ele- 
mentary ones the children are doing? This is 
true of all the well-regulated trades offering ap- 
prenticeship instruction, such as those of the 
machinist, carpenter, electrician, and printer. 
If our investigation of this question shows that 
the employment is of the '' blind-alley" type, 
in which two or three weeks, or even less, suffices 
to master all the technical training and skill that 
can be employed in the work, — which is true 
of about eighty-five per cent of the paper-box- 
making industry and of about an equal percent- 
age of the machine work in shirt and collar fac- 
tories and in laundries, — it is evident that no 
trade training at pubfic expense should be pro- 
vided. If the advanced processes of the work are 
so simple in nature that all the knowledge and 
skill needed can be picked up in the trade itself 
with what little assistance can be given by a 
foreman, which is possible in plants working on 

IS 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

white goods, in power sewing, straw-hat sewing, 
and underwear knitting, it is then inadvisable 
to use public funds for training workers to enter 
this industry. If the amount of technical infor- 
mation is small and can be learned with little 
or no instruction and the required skill is of 
suiEciently low grade to be supplied by the in- 
dustry itself, either on the shop floor or in shop 
apprenticeship classes of short-unit type, as in 
the simpler processes of shoemaking and glove- 
making and in machine-tending, it is inadvis- 
able to train children for this work in publicly 
supported schools. It is in industries of this type 
that the shifting factor is most prominent. 

Other training possible 

In these cases, where direct trade training is 
refused, some other form of instruction might be 
offered, such as general education in evening 
schools, training for a better occupation, or for 
a change of occupation in the same plant, which 
are discussed later on in this book. 

Fitting the apprentice for advancement 

If it can be shown that there are advanced 
processes in the industry and that they require 
skill of high degree and technical information of 

i6 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

special nature, then it is our business to find out 
whether the work that is assigned to children is 
fitting them in any way to advance and master 
these higher processes and whether they really do 
so under present conditions. In the case of the 
well-regulated trades cited above, this might or 
might not be true, depending upon whether the 
apprentices were given a series of jobs in rota- 
tion or kept on one type or piece of work. At 
one time the Lehigh Valley Railroad started all 
its apprentices in a shacking department, which 
had no direct bearing on their future apprentice- 
ship, and though it may have contributed to their 
general training, it was the cause of much falling 
off and shifting on the part of beginners. The 
Fore River Shipbuilding Company, on the other 
hand, has had for some years a carefully planned 
system of apprentice rotation, which not only 
assures each man a general experience, but sup- 
plements a classroom course in the technical side 
of the work. 

It is possible to arrange the apprenticeship 
work in all high skilled industries so as to pro- 
vide such successive advancement as just re- 
ferred to. If it is not provided, it is our business 
to see that it is provided before the public is 
taxed to assist in the training of its apprentices. 

17 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

We must know whether a beginner is kept on 
piece work or moved from one operation to an- 
other; whether the learner is watched and ad- 
vanced from one class of work to another accord- 
ing to the ability displayed. The first \sdll be 
found the case in the large automobile shops, in 
specialized plants like those producing machine 
chucks, and generally in furniture factories, sash, 
door, and blind factories, and plants of that 
nature. On the other hand, a careful supervision 
of apprentices is maintained in the American 
Locomotive Works, the General Electric Com- 
pany, the Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing 
Company and in the Filene Stores in Boston. 
In a pattern shop, where several simple patterns 
are in constant demand, would a young appren- 
tice be kept sLx months repeating these patterns 
because he could do so rapidly and profitably 
to the firm, or would the foreman observe when 
he had reached suflScient accuracy and speed on 
these elementary patterns and then permit him 
to attempt others involving new processes? 
Would a girl in a dressmaking shop be kept al- 
ways on skirts because she had speed at that 
work, or would she be permitted to learn the 
setting-in of sleeves, even though it entailed some 
loss of time at the start? This depends alto- 

i8 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

gether too much at the present time on the size 
of the plant. In a small shop empio\-ing a few 
girls, the different branches of the trade may be 
learned by one girl but in large establishments 
it is quite impossible without a change of em- 
ployer or a ver\* great sacrince in wages. A 
graduate of the State College for Teachers at 
Albany, who had completed a two years' course 
in dressmaking, entered a local dressmaking es- 
tablishment in order to acquire conmiercial ex- 
perience. She was unable at any time during a 
year to get any instruction in fitting or even to 
enter the fitting-room, partly through jealousy 
of the technique and partly because she was an 
adept at fine hand-sewing and it was desirable 
to keep her at that work. There is very little 
educational or trade profit to a beginner who 
remains for weeks upon any specialized branch of 
a trade, and it behoo\*es us at once to investigate 
the causes that have brought about such a gen- 
eral misuse of the apprenticeship years. 

// not adffomced, wky natf 

If the apprentices are kept upon this kind of 
piece wock, is it due to something in the nature 
ol the woik or to some attitude on the part of 
the employer that will pre\-ent a change in this 

19 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCH00L3 

method if the beginners are trained; or is it due 
to the fact that proper training for advance- 
ment is not offered in the shop or outside of it? 
This is one of the most important questions to 
be determined : it is a mighty stumbling-block in 
the way of trade education where the answer as 
to the employer's attitude is unfavorable. In 
the dressmaking example cited above, the ap- 
prentice's difficulties came more largely from 
the employer's attitude than from any expedi- 
ency of the shop, although the latter was an 
important factor. During one of the national 
meetings of the Society for the Promotion of 
Industrial Education, a man of wide intelligence, 
a large employer of labor, and a man of financial 
standing frankly and publicly placed himself on 
record as opposed to hiring in his plant any 
young man who would not be willing to learn 
the manipulation of one machine, acquire skill 
and speed in that one partial process, and then 
remain at that job indefinitely without seeking 
continually to change around and learn other 
parts of the work. In a great furniture factory 
where everything is specialized, this method of 
production seems indispensable to the employer: 
as a business proposition alone it cannot seem 
otherwise to him; but the State is concerned first 

20 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

for its citizens, not for mechanical systems, and 
to begin an apprentice on such work and keep 
him always on the same work, cannot result 
otherwise than in a citizenship inferior in ca- 
pacity, narrow in outlook, and excessive in its 
effort to find recreative reaction. 

Apprentice vs, adult 

An adult citizen, broadly trained in his ap- 
prenticeship days, capable of a general apprecia- 
tion of the industry in which he is employed, 
working not more than nine hours a day, may, 
without serious injury to himself or his com- 
munity, be kept on intensive piece work: but a 
learner cannot grow in such a task. 

Employer creates a ^^ blind alley ^^ 

The first instance, where the employer refuses to 
do his part, or for a real or fancied reason main- 
tains that the nature of the work will not permit 
a change, is similar to the blind-alley employment 
and should not be supported by the public. 

Shall we train inside or outside the Shop ? 

In the second case, where training is possible 
but not offered, let us determine, first, whether 
we can provide proper training in both skill and 

21 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

technical information inside the shop and do it 
effectively and economically, or whether it is 
advisable to provide a school outside the shop 
to give apprentices instruction in one or both of 
these lines of work. In other words, assuming 
that the industry has advanced processes re- 
quiring training of special nature, is there a real 
need for a separate school at public expense to 
provide this training? If the industry is so or- 
ganized that it cannot properly give this train- 
ing within itself and in its regular activities, 
then it must be given outside the industry or at 
least outside the regular work of the industry. 

Training within the industry 

To answer intelligently whether or not an in- 
dustry made up of both elementary and ad- 
vanced processes is offering within itself all the 
opportunities for training that are needed under 
present conditions, it will be necessary for us to 
turn again to the collection of facts. Let us 
know first how many of the children formerly 
employed in the elementary processes have re- 
mained in the industry in advanced positions. 
What percentage of the total number of em- 
ployees are considered as holding advanced posi- 
tions? What is the scale of wages, beginning at 

22 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

the bottom and running to the highest paid 
operators and foremen, and how many men and 
women employed continuously for ten years are 
now drawing low wages as against the same 
class drawing high wages? We must also find 
out how long these operatives have held their 
positions without being advanced in their work, 
whether they have risen through increased skill 
or through general knowledge of the processes 
of the industry and how many have not ad- 
vanced at all. 

Large number advanced 

If a large number of beginners have ad- 
vanced to places of importance, this may indi- 
cate that the industry is itself affording all the 
training necessary, that no outside training is 
required; or it may indicate that a splendid 
opportunity for supplementary training is being 
neglected. The question is, How long has it taken 
them to advance to these better places and how 
many have failed to succeed? Thus, we find in 
the case of instrument-makers that the work is 
very largely dependent upon superior skill, that 
the business offers every opportunity for acquir- 
ing this skill, and that the employees of such 
firms as Bausch and Lomb, in Rochester, often 

23 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

have records of service exceeding thirty years. 
We find also that these long-term employees 
mostly hold highly paid positions implying skill 
or responsibility and that their promotions have 
been steady and systematic. Whatever might 
be the advantages of a public trade school to give 
instruction in the science and theory of optical 
work, it is practically certain that no such school 
is needed to train in mechanical skill for the 
optical work done by this firm. 

Large advance hut slow 

For telegraph operators, railroad freight agents, 
express messengers, and postal clerks there is a 
large and very general advancement, and the 
man who remains long enough usually arrives 
at a very good position; but the rise is unrea- 
sonably slow. These employees, if denied any 
outside instruction and left dependent upon the 
daily routine of business, would seldom rise to 
any distinctive positions, and where they did, 
would do so after many wasted years of labor. 
This line of business offers large advancement, 
but it does not offer within itseff all the instruc- 
tion needed to secure this advancement. Where 
the rise is assured, but has been slow, where it is 
due to skill and technical information not fully 

24 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

provided in the day's work, we can accelerate 
it by training given in part-time and evening 
schools. This training should bear especially 
upon the points that experience shows are most 
difficult to acquire in the trade work itself. 

Small number highly skilled 

Long records of service are still found in some 
of our American watch factories, but in this case 
they represent former rather than existing con- 
ditions. To-day the majority of the employees 
working in the watch-making factories are un- 
skilled girls and women who cannot advance to 
the best-paying positions except through un- 
reasonably long years of service, and even then 
in but a few instances. This industry at the 
present time appears to be satisfying its own 
needs as regards training in skill. This is because 
the low-skilled operatives either drop out after 
a few years or content themselves with long 
years of service at simple operations and com- 
paratively small pay. Training in skill is cer- 
tainly needed here, but it can undoubtedly be 
given to sufficient numbers by reorganizing the 
work of beginners, and a public trade school is a 
doubtful need, inasmuch as so few employees can 
be advanced to really highly skilled work. 

25 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Our attention may here be turned to some 
shorter and less expensive method of publicly 
supported training for these people. For ex- 
ample, if investigation shows that a very small 
percentage of those remaining in the industry 
after ten years are holding places of importance 
and skill, due to the fact that the upper positions 
are relatively few in number, or because there is 
something in the nature of these positions that 
makes it impossible to rise from the ranks except 
in extreme cases of genius, a community may 
feel justified in offering short unit evening 
courses or day continuation classes to assist the 
operatives as far as they can be assisted to the 
small advancement offered. Another example 
of this is seen in the overall-making industry. 
The work is not highly skilled, advancement is 
limited, and where there is one woman holding 
a position of responsibility there may be several 
hundred, many just as capable, who cannot 
advance because no positions are open. Again 
in the stained-glass industry there are certain 
processes dependent upon manipulative skill 
that offer limited advancement to boys and men, 
but comparatively few can reach the highest- 
paid positions because they are so largely depend- 
ent upon native artistic sense. Compare these 

26 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

with the machinists' trade, where the highest- 
paid work is within the reach of any normally 
endowed beginner who is assured proper train- 
ing and is willing to work. In a case like the first 
one, the short course may be given or it may be 
possible to fit these em^ployees for some other 
industry offering better opportunities of ad- 
vancement. This phase of the question is dis- 
cussed further along in this chapter. 

The foregoing examples assume that, whether 
promoted to positions of importance or not, the 
beginners remain in the industry. We shall now 
consider cases where the industrial mortality 
plays an important part. 

Apprentice mortality 

If a large number of beginners leave the in- 
dustry in a few months, it probably indicates 
that they are receiving a low wage. This may be 
due to the fact that they are kept in low-skilled 
occupations and not permitted to advance, al- 
though as a rule this very repetition of process 
increases the wage, but curtails the prospect of 
advancement. It may be due to the fact that 
beginners are being trained for advancement and 
thus their immediate earning power is less than 
when no training is given. This latter is true in 

27 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the great railroad systems which conduct schools 
for apprentice training and of other concerns 
like the General Electric Company and Fore 
River Shipbuilding Company. 

If a large number of operatives are leaving 
because no opportunity is offered for advance- 
ment, or if a large percentage are remaining, 
but remaining in low-skilled processes because 
of higher wages, and if in this industry there are 
highly skilled places to be filled, then the need 
of a trade school is evident. Where operatives 
are leaving to seek better wages and thereby 
neglecting proffered opportunities of training in 
the industry itself, it will probably be better to 
organize a specific class in the shop or factory, 
give it public support, and publish its oppor- 
tunities than to organize an outside trade school. 
This throws the emphasis upon the advantages 
of that particular trade rather than upon the 
advantages of the school, which acts somewhat 
as a means of vocational guidance. In many 
cases it will be more efficient and more economi- 
cal than the detached class and it will further 
place the influence and support of the public 
behind those employers who are willing to offer 
proper opportunities for training to their young 
workers. A community may well give serious 

28 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

consideration to any plan that gives promise of 
holding apprentices to a fixed trade. It is charac- 
teristic of American trade beginners to enter 
several trades one after the other, leaving them 
all unlearned, to settle at last upon some other 
trade or business. Occasionally this represents 
a real effort to find one's place in industry, but 
usually it is prompted by discontent, craving for 
change, and lack of foresight, all of which are 
fostered and encouraged by the lack of a definite 
and connected course of training which every 
apprentice must start the day he begins work in 
a new line or occupation. 

The nature of the work 

Independent of the fact of whether an indus- 
try is or is not now offering within itself the 
training and instruction needed by young appren- 
tices, the question must arise whether there is 
anything in the nature of the work that will per- 
mit or prohibit its arrangement to provide this 
training if the employers desire to do so. First, 
can we provide both skill and technical infor- 
mation? It would be entirely possible to do this 
in the regular work in the case of furniture- 
making. The plumbers and the carpenters could 
give the entire training in skill and theory in 

29 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the course of the daily work if it were necessary 
to do so, but the advancement of apprentices 
can be very much accelerated by forming classes 
out of working hours and giving special training 
in drawing, blue-print making, arithmetic, and 
building science. 

Can we give skill alone ? 

Training is readily given so far as skill is con- 
cerned in such cases as printing, painting, and 
paper-hanging. The tinsmith, the boilermaker, 
and enamel-ware workers can best acquire skill 
in the regular commercial job. The one indis- 
pensable condition is that the instructor shall 
be a thorough tradesman, familiar with the 
handling of young men and capable of doing 
carefully planned and connected teaching. In 
trades like these it will be far better to offer 
special outside courses in the technical knowl- 
edge needed for advancement. 

In some cases even skill cannot be oJBfered 
entirely in the trade work. 

Must skill be given outside ? 

Thus, the organization of plants for bleaching 
and dyeing would ordinarily include complete 
chemical laboratory facilities, in which training 

30 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

in all the elementary principles of the chemis- 
try of bleaching and dyeing could be given if 
desired. On the other hand, the organization of a 
textile mill would not include adequate facilities 
for teaching the chemistry of textiles, although 
it would afford ample opportunity for training 
the apprentices in the preparation, mixing, and 
use of dyestuffs as applied to the work of that 
particular mill. In the first instance it would be 
foolish to establish a separate school for the in- 
struction in chemistry: in the second instance, 
with few exceptions, it would be necessary to 
provide a separate laboratory for instruction in 
textile chemistry. Lastly, such an industry as 
the Solvay Process Company, near Syracuse, 
New York, has found it practically impossible 
to give satisfactory training to its apprentices 
while they are engaged in their regular work, 
and has for some years conducted a separate 
school to aid in their instruction. 

Is general knowledge required? 

In many cases neither skill nor technical knowl- 
edge plays the most important part in determin- 
ing the advancement of employees. General trade 
knowledge, at best not more than semi-technical, 
is often required for responsible positions, 

31 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

If advancement is due to a general knowledge 
of the industry, which is true wherever the busi- 
ness is a distributing agency rather than a pro- 
ducing agency, or a combination of both, such 
as the Fairbanks Company, we can certainly 
hasten it by teaching the theory in special classes 
for that purpose and organizing a course in the 
actual practice, to be given in the shop or fac- 
tory or salesroom during working hours. If the 
industry is experiencing a lack of well-paid oper- 
atives for higher processes and this is due to 
inability to hold the beginners in the industry 
or inability to train sufficient numbers of those 
whom they hold, the indications all point to the 
possibility of great good from some form of pub- 
licly supported trade instruction. 

Training for foremanship 

The last paragraph suggests to us the impor- 
tance of knowing whether the industry under 
consideration finds difficulty in getting opera- 
tives for its highest-paid positions. This is true 
of structural-iron workers. It is the case in de- 
partment-store work, and less than two years 
ago President Vail, of the American Telephone 
and Telegraph Company, stated that he would 
gladly employ twenty-five men at ten thousand 

32 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

dollars a year each, if he could find men in his 
business who were capable of earning those sala- 
ries. Such a statement shows us at once that it 
may not be only a question of filling such posi- 
tions as require extra skilled men; but it may 
reach also to the positions of foreman, assist- 
ant superintendent, and even superintendent 
or general manager. These latter cases are es- 
pecially difficult, inasmuch as they cannot be 
filled by normal advancement from the ranks. 

Where such difficulty is experienced, it is usu- 
ally possible to form a class of picked employees 
and, by carefully restricting the personnel of 
the class, make a successful effort to train es- 
pecially for the duties of foreman and superin- 
tendent. Thus, where a large number of for- 
eigners are employed in street-pavement work 
there is not sufficient content in the work of the 
average laborer to justify a publicly supported 
school for this trade; but a carefully selected 
group might well be trained in the fundamental 
principles of the trade, with the direct intention 
of fitting these men as section bosses and gang 
foremen. Later, some of these men might be 
expected to go of their own volition to a more 
advanced school where they could find training 
in the elementary engineering branches that 

33 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

would enable them to become job foremen and 
contractors. This suggests the whole question 
of training for foremanship and superintendency. 
In foreign countries, especially Germany, the 
day-school work in industrial lines and technical 
branches below the engineering grade is almost 
exclusively given over to the preparation of 
foremen or mechanics of particularly high skill. 
The Sunday morning schools for apprentices 
and journeymen are the only exceptions to this 
in Prussia, and so carefully are the courses and 
students selected for the other day work that, 
whereas Hamburg has 3520 students enrolled 
in its evening classes of all grades of industrial 
work, there are only 186 registered in the regu- 
lar day-school trade classes exclusive of Sunday. 
Moreover, this day work is entirely optional and 
elective, very little effort is made to advertise 
it, contrary to the custom with evening classes, 
and the entire conduct of the schools is based 
upon the principle that those men who are men- 
tally and physically qualified for positions of 
trust and importance will see the value and need 
of special training and be willing to sacrifice the 
time necessary for electing one of the advanced 
day courses. It has always appealed to me that 
one of the great, if not the greatest, province of 

34 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

the industrial day school was this fitting of a self- 
elected and school-selected group of superior men 
and women for places in the forefront of their 
industry, leaving the continuation day school, 
the evening school, and the short-unit course 
to handle the bulk of the lower-grade work. 
Thus in any of the instances cited thus far in 
our study of a particular industry, whether it 
ojffers advancement from the ranks or not, so 
long as it is not morally degrading or physically 
dangerous, we may be justified in attempting to 
register a superior but small group of ambitious 
workers and train them for efficiency in directive 
capacity. This we may do even where we have 
previously decided that it was not the duty of 
the community to oiBfer general training to the 
personnel of the trade. 

In respect to creative ability all men are not 
created equal, despite the fact that American tra- 
dition has led many to believe they are. There is 
a danger that the enthusiast in industrial educa- 
tion will overlook the greatest factor in indus- 
trial progress, the unequal man. Not unequal 
because of inferiority, but by superiority. It is al- 
ways the unequal man who creates; the others are 
intelligent or unintelligent accepters. The clas- 
sical traditions of education have grouped them- 

35 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

selves around the unequal man and have left the 
masses to accept or not as chance might decree. 
Industrial education, which is the outcome of 
a sharp reaction against the selfishness of class 
education, thinks first of the masses, as it should, 
but it must not neglect those who are by nature 
selected to be leaders. It is the duty of present- 
day education to select and train those who are 
to create, in order that a new and higher stand- 
ard may always be presenting itself, and then 
to aJBford a mass education that will insure the 
ability of the great working class to accept and 
make intelligent use of these higher standards. 
Through this process, of the group rising to the 
new level set by the unequal man, has come all 
human progress. 

The Allied Industries 

Returning now to our direct inquiry, we must 
determine next whether there is a group of allied 
industries closely connected with our main in- 
dustry. Thus collar-making has connected with 
it paper-box factories, printing-shops, laundries, 
and advertising agencies; paper-making plants 
often own their own forests; refrigerating plants, 
fertilizer factories, car building and repair shops 
and transportation agencies are all allied to the 

36 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

meat-packing business as a central industry. 
Chemical and drug manufacturers employ paint- 
ers, glaziers, varnishers, and oil refiners. 

Are the children and young workers being 
fitted for any of the allied groups? How many of 
them are retained as workers in these allied 
trades? It is not at all uncommon to find grouped 
around some great industry, which in itself offers 
only low-skilled occupation to the worker and 
no opportunity for advancement, several smaller 
industries or trades dependent upon it, and re- 
quiring more skill and personal talent than the 
main industry itself. Thus, printing has litho- 
graphing, book-binding, and engraving; carriage 
and automobile firms have painting, upholster- 
ing, and decorating; all mills and factories have 
skilled repair men, and nearly all plants where 
assembling parts is the main feature are depend- 
ent upon a larger number of allied or semi-allied 
trades requiring more skill than the central plant. 
Having refused public support to training for the 
larger industry, we may find that these allied 
industries offer an outlet for some of the workers 
in our treadmill processes, if an opportunity be 
given them to prepare for this new work. If one 
or more of these trades find difficulty in securing 
men and women competent to do their work, if 

37 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

no effort has been made to select and transfer to 
or otherwise fit for any of these allied processes, 
a school or class might well be started to prepare 
the workers in one branch to fill these more de- 
sirable places in the smaller branches. 

Industries for adult beginners 

Again, we must know whether there are any 
industries that require adults as beginners and 
from what source they draw their supply of 
workers. Do they want untrained beginners in 
these industries? Do the left-overs from our first 
industry go into these trades when they are old 
enough? How many of them? Do they make 
better workmen because of their apprentice- 
ship in the first industry or is it valueless and 
even a handicap to them? An apprentice boy 
cannot become a fireman, a policeman, a motor- 
man, or a stationary engineer. Where do the men 
come from who fill these positions? Running an 
elevator might be some help to the boy who later 
becomes an engineer or a motorman, but it would 
not help him to discharge the duties of a police- 
man. If he wished to become a policeman and 
intended to become a policeman, is there any job 
open to him as a boy that will aid him in prepar- 
ing for the duties of a policeman? Have we 

38 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

some industries that take children into an ap- 
prenticeship ofifering good opportunities, but de- 
mand them before a certain age and untrained, 
thus closing the doors to those who have already- 
served in our first industry? The maximum age 
limit for apprentices is fixed at eighteen years by 
the Brotherhood of Bookbinders and by Journey- 
men Stone Cutters. 

An industry that requires adults as beginners 
is always short of help unless it be for common 
day labor: if there is no opportunity for advance- 
ment in our main industry, if there are no allied 
industries open to them, we may yet find it ad- 
visable to select a group and prepare them for 
one of these industries that require age and ma- 
turity. There are positions on the railroads, for 
instance, that cannot be filled by minors or ap- 
prentices, and yet the training for them is usually 
a long and tedious process undertaken by the 
man when he enters the railroad employ after 
working six or seven years at some employment 
that was simply a blind alley. A careful survey of 
such industries as this should be taken into con- 
sideration whenever a large number of workers 
in blind-alley or no-prospect industries have been 
left out of our industrial scheme, because their 
business offered nothing for which to be fitted. 

39 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Vocational guidance 

In cases where industries having opportunities 
and apprenticeship refuse to accept the overflow 
from our blind-alley occupations, a State-wide 
department of vocational guidance, able and will- 
ing to give wide publicity in specific and concrete 
form to the advantages and disadvantages of the 
various lines of work offered beginners, by thus 
pointing out at the start the desirable and unde- 
sirable jobs and the proper time for selecting the 
former, will do these workers in bhnd-alley trades 
more good than any system of trade schools that 
can be devised. 

The natural tendency of the young worker is to 
look for a job with good pay in the near future, 
and to reject places with lower pay at the begin- 
ning, but higher wages at the top. The workers 
in positions of the first type should be stimulated 
to prepare themselves for industries with long 
processes and lower pay, but leading to perma- 
nent and satisfactory wages after the years of 
apprenticeship. 

Right here let us find out what becomes of the 
other children that pass out every year from our 
industries which offer work of the simplest kind 
at the lowest wages, the children that we have 

40 



SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

not and cannot find a place for in any of our fore- 
going planning. Do they go into unskilled trades? 
What trades? What percentage of them are suc- 
cessful from the community's viewpoint? Have 
they any information to guide them in selecting 
another job? Did they ever think of this while 
applying for or working in their former places? 
Here is where the bureau of vocational guidance 
and the department of trade training touch each 
other closely. Some of these " unskilled '^ occu- 
pations are very desirable in certain localities. 
It may be well even to go so far as to start short 
courses in training for the general principles of 
some of these occupations, whereas others will 
prove most uninviting. Lectures and pamphlets, 
backed by investigation, can be given to young 
workers to open their eyes to the blind alley they 
are already in, and assist them in making a sen- 
sible choice for the future, whether they go into 
a trade school to prepare for some skilled trade or 
enter directly upon one of the so-called unskilled 
but lucrative occupations. I am personally ac- 
quainted with a man who has a large yearly in- 
come from the collection of flag in our swamps 
and who was led into this business by reading a 
pamphlet sent out by some society for agricul- 
tural promotion. 

4X 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

This State-wide publicity will have other bene- 
ficial effects. It will not only aid us in *^ fitting 
the man to his job," but it will help most effect- 
ively in "fitting the job to the man." What effect 
do you think it would have upon the "place of 
work" in your State, if a fearless but absolutely 
fair report should be distributed among its work- 
men, containing the names of plants and indus- 
tries where the surroundings were dangerous and 
unhealthful, due to a lack of remedial effort, and 
so warning parents against allowing their chil- 
dren to enter these places in search of work? 
Even where by nature the work was dangerous, 
an improvement in safety appliances, ventila- 
tion, etc., would be sure to follow such publicity, 
and at least the worker entering the industry 
would do so with full knowledge of the dangers 
included and the means of avoiding them which 
he should expect to find in use. 



II 

MAKING THE SURVEY 

As the reader has very possibly discovered before 
this, the collection of the various facts and answers 
called for in the foregoing pages constitutes noth- 
ing more or less than a survey, an industrial and 
educational community survey. 

Two Aspects of the Survey 

An industrial survey of a community is an or- 
ganized and systematically conducted study of 
the local industries, to ascertain the advisability 
and the possibility of training beginners to enter 
these industries or assisting those already at work 
to increase their trade and technical knowledge. 

An educational survey is a similar study of the 
existing schools and educational institutions of the 
community, to find out in what measure they are 
at present offering the general, technical, or trade 
training called for in the industrial survey, and 
also the possibilities for reorganization and addi- 
tions which will enable the existing institutions 
to supply these demands. 

43 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

From a combination of these two surveys the 
director and his staff can present a complete re- 
port of industrial and trade needs of the locality 
— what part of these needs are being and can be 
provided for in the regular educational system, 
just what needs must be provided for outside of 
the present local educational institutions, and 
finally, where and how these latter needs are to 
be taken care of most advantageously. 

The success of the survey will depend first of 
all upon the personality, experience, and fidelity 
of the director and his assistants. It is mani- 
festly impossible to lay out any program, of pro- 
cedure that will insure these requisites, but it 
may be urged that great care be exercised to 
select persons who are familiar with and in sym- 
pathy with the four great general lines of activi- 
ties that must be considered, namely, those of 
the educator, employer, employee, and trade 
unionist. Some member of the director's staflF 
should have survey experience, especially along 
the lines of statistical classification and interpre- 
tation, and one or more of them should have ex- 
perience or have thoroughly studied the science 
of preparing and presenting a survey report. 

Aside from the foregoing, the success of the 
survey will depend in large measure upon the 

44 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

organization and plan of the work to be done. 
A perfectly clear and definite outline must be 
evolved. Its parts must be classified, the points 
sought must be grouped in some logical order, the 
exact reason for each step must be clear, the as- 
signments must be definite and the time, place, 
and manner of returning each sub-report must be 
specified. The reception, classification, and re- 
cording of these reports must be provided for, 
consultations between workers must be arranged, 
and follow-up questions to clear foggy issues 
must be included in the general scheme. More 
important still, arrangements and agreements 
must be made beforehand with the employers 
and employees of the industries and particular 
plants to be studied, insuring their permission for 
and cooperation in the work of the survey mem- 
bers and accurate and ample figures and facts 
upon which to base conclusions. 

The Industrial Survey 

To illustrate the method, care, and precision 
with which such a survey should be laid out, I 
cannot do better than to present here a brief out- 
line of the industrial survey conducted by Mr. 
Prosser and his assistants in the city of Minne- 
apolis: — 

45 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

The survey material 

Various agencies cooperating to make the survey a 
success and the part of each 

1. The Survey Organization. 

Director and assistants: Lays out and con- 
ducts the actual field work; receipt and classi- 
fication of statistics and facts and most of the 
interpretation of the same. 

2. The Local Survey Committee. 

Business men and educators of Minneapolis. 
General advisory with some personal assistance. 

3. National Society for the Promotion of Indus- 

trial Education. 

Starts the survey through its secretary, who 
is director of the survey, contributes personal 
assistance through other oflScers, and gives 
publicity and assistance through its influence, 
publications, and conventions. 

4. University of Minnesota. 

Details a committee to conduct a special 
study of commercial education under direction 
of a special investigator. Agricultural school of 
the University details one woman and twelve 
to fifteen girls to study training of home work- 
ers. Clerical force provided by University Re- 
search Bureau and volunteer students of sum- 
mer school. Group of students to make a study 
of the facts for purposes of Industrial education 
in Minnesota. 

46 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

Minnesota Department of Labor. 

Details employee to assist in the study of 
commercial work. Supplies the services and 
pays all expenses for studying the following 
points: — 

Statistical information for 1914 report. 
Irregularity of employment and seasonal 

trades. 
Trade unionism's part in trade organiza- 
tion. 
Correspondence school instruction. 
Number employed in each occupation for 

each industry. 
Apprenticeship and training of young work- 
ers. 
Special firms and their specialties. 
Handling information from inquiries on 
question of further training for workers. 
Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Association* 
Contributes material of its 1914 survey. 
Assistance given by the director of the for- 
mer survey regarding schedules, etc, 
Minneapolis Board of Education. 
Contributes $3500. 
Gives services of attendance officer three 

days each week. 
Contributes part time of other officials. 
Vocational Guidance Bureau gives assistance. 
Dunwoody Institute. 
Contributes $3500. 



47 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Principal of the school assists the director. 
Makes study of "noncommissioned officers 

of industry/' 
Makes study of apprenticeship training. 

Classification of all occupations in Minneapolis 

Here follows a general classification of the in- 
dustries into nine large groups with the total 
number of employees in each group. The groups 
are: — 

1. Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries. 

2. Trade and Commerce. 

3. Domestic and Personal Service. 

4. Transportation. 

5. Clerical Occupations. 

6. Professional Service. 

7. Public Service not elsewhere specified. 

8. Agriculture — Forestry and Animal Husbandry. 

9. Extraction of Minerals. 

Occupations not to he considered 

Certain occupations that it has been decided 
not to deal with are next tabulated as fol- 
lows: — 

Transportation, Professional Service. 
Public Service, Agriculture, etc. 
Extraction of Minerals. 

48, 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

Groups that will he studied 

Those of the groups that will be studied are 
then listed, with notes concerning the nature and 
extent of the work to be allotted to each. A few 
examples will sufi&ce to illustrate this: — 

A. Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries 
. will be most thoroughly investigated. 

B. Domestic and Personal Service will be covered 
as far as possible by the woman in charge of 
the study of "women's work.'' 

C. It will be attempted to have a study of Com- 
mercial Training for clerical occupations made 
by some outside agency cooperating with the 
survey, as the cost, approximately $1200, can- 
not be met by the funds available for the sur- 
vey. 

And so on. 

Subdivimns under general occupations 

The director proceeds next to divide the gen- 
eral occupations into specific industries with sta- 
tistics regarding the workers in each separate 
industry. The first general heading is, naturally, 
"Manufacturing and Mechanical Industries," 
and it is subdivided into fifteen subheadings as 
follows: — 

49 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 



1. Building Trades. 

2. Clothing. 

3. Lumber and Furni- 
ture. 

4. Chemical and Drug. 

5. Textile. 

6. Clay, Glass, and Stone. 

7. Liquor and Beverage. 

8. Metal Industries. 



9. Supervisors and Tech- 
nicians. 

10. Food and Grain. 

11. Printing and Engrav- 
ing. 

12. Boots, Shoes, and 
Leather. 

13. Tobacco. 

14. Jewelry. 



15. All other industries. 

For each of these industries a set of statistics 
is given; as, for example: — 

3. Lumber and Furniture 
Total Number of Persons Employed 



Skilled 


Semi-skilled 


Lahortrs 


Total 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


1272 


IS 


1379 


42 


1347 


10 


4065 



From these figures grand totals are found for 
each group of general occupations. 

Industries in the manufacturing and mechani- 
cal group that will not he studied 

Those of the above group that will not be con- 
sidered in the survey, or will receive only partial 
consideration, are now listed, with the reasons 

50 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

why the survey committee has not included them 
in a list to be thoroughly examined: — 

Tobacco, Liquor and Beverage, Chemical and 
Drug, Jewelry, Clay, Glass, and Stone, Super- 
visors and Technicians, and All Other Industries 
are so set aside by the Minneapolis survey for 
partial, incidental, or no consideration. 

Take Clay, Glass, and Stone, for instance. It 
is first divided according to the following table : — 





Skilled 


Semi-skilled 


Laborers 


Total 




Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Glass-blowers 


5 
o 
o 
145 
o 









188 

9 

39 

40 

7 


3 
I 





12 

134 

95 

37 






I 





208 


Brick, tile, terra-cotta . . 
Lime, cement, gypsum . 

Marble and stone 

Potteries 


145 

134 

222 

7 






150 





283 


4 


278 


I 


716 



The director and his assistants proceed to 
analyze the above table to decide the advisabil- 
ity of a careful study of these trades. 

First, "Marble and stone" is set aside, to be 
dealt with in connection with the building trades. 
It is next decided that "Lime, cement, and gyp- 
sum" constitutes too small a field for study and 
the plants are too scattered. It is seen also that 
no skilled labor is employed in that work. "Pot- 
teries " is also discarded as too small. " Brick, tile, 

SI 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

and terra-cotta " is also discarded as too small and 
unskilled. " Glass-blowing/' itis decided, is purely 
mechanical and cannot be taught except "on the 
job/' The committee state, however, that it is 
worthy of study, but cannot be considered be- 
cause of its unimportance in this locality — only 
five skilled laborers being employed. 

The survey authorities also note that the art 
side of marble, stone, pottery, brick, tile, and 
terra-cotta will receive attention under a sepa- 
rate study of "Art in Industry"; thus a special 
study of them is not needed. Jewelry, for instance, 
is omitted from consideration as a manufacturing 
industry because its greatest need is training in 
taste and skill in applied design, which receives 
full consideration under "Art in Industry." 

So the different trades that are to be omitted 
are taken up step by step, classed for indirect 
study or discarded entirely because of small size, 
unskilled nature, undesirable influence, or unim- 
portance which justifies their rejection. 

Industries in the manufacturing and mechanical 
group that will be studied 

1. Building Trades. 

2. Metal Industries. 

3. Clothing Industries. 

52 



MAKING THE SURVEY 



4. Lumber and Furniture. 

5. Food Industries. 

6. Textile Industries. 

7. Leather, Boots, and Shoes. 

8. Printing and Engraving. 

9. Foundry Operations. 
10. Engineers. 

Each of the above subdivisions is then taken 
up and again subdivided into individual trades^ 
dividing the workers as to skill and sex the same 
as in the preceding tables. The subdivision of 
the metal trades is here given in detail as an 
example: — 





Skilled 


Semi-skilled 


Laborers 


Toiai 




Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Male 


Female 


Moulders, founders, cast- 
ers 


460 
382 
304 
no 
212 
136 
755 

36 
9 







I 






° 










161 


12 

S6 

595 

7 

20 
892 














2 
2 


48 










177 


4 
28 
173 

13 
444 










I 




I 



5 


460 


Tinsmiths 


382 


Boiler-makers 


304 


Fillers, grinders, buffers. . 
Mechanics 


1x0 
213 


Oilers of machinery 

Blacksmiths 


136 

7S5 


Machinists, millwrights. . 
Furnaces and rolling mills 

Structural-iron work 

Copper and brass facto- 
ries 


2894 

365 

36 

25 


Automobile factories .... 
Car and railroad shops . . . 
Lead and zinc factories . . 
Tinware and enamelware 
All others 


87 

770 

7 

1389 






5324 


X 


1743 


52 


839 


7 


7966 



S3 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

The table is then analyzed. 

**A11 other works'' is to be omitted as ^Hoo 
indefinite and scattered." Structural-iron work 
it is decided to handle in connection with '^Build- 
ing trades." Copper, brass, lead, tinware and 
enamelware, and zinc are discarded because the 
number of workers represented is too small. 
Automobile factories are not considered for the 
same reason. It is interesting to note here the 
part that local conditions play in the survey and 
its analysis. In Detroit, automobile factories 
would have been studied as one of the great fac- 
tors of the metal trades. The ten remaining trades, 
after the above are eliminated, are then set down 
for consideration and study. 

The committee notes further, ''The classifica- 
tion given above for the census is an awkward one 
for our purposes here. In general all the remain- 
ing occupations in the table and others will be 
covered in the study of establishments." 

Domestic and personal service 

Each of the fifteen trades of the manufacturing 
and mechanical industries to be studied having 
been given the same minute preparatory analy- 
sis as that for the metal industries, the survey 
proceeds next to take up the second large divi- 

54 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

sion of occupations to be considered, *' Domestic 
and Personal Service.'' 

This larger group is broken up into twenty- 
nine individual occupations, exactly as has been 
done for the manufacturing and mechanical in- 
dustries, and then in a similar manner those 
which are to be studied and those which are to 
be omitted are grouped separately. The entire 
process is essentially the same as in the examples 
previously given, and is repeated just as carefully 
for each trade under each general occupational 
heading in the first table of industries. 

Instructions for field workers 

In order that those who are to do the actual 
field work of the survey may follow a uniform and 
intelligent method, insuring the collection of all the 
information needed, there were prepared sheets of 
directions for field workers. The importance of 
such directions cannot be overestimated and the 
more detailed they are the better, provided the 
investigator is not hampered by useless red tape. 

Memorandum 

In the first place, each worker receives a mem- 
orandum giving him the list of all the survey ma- 
terial he should have before entering upon his 

55 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

investigations. The serial number and the form 
number of each piece of material, chart, card, or 
direction sheet is given on this memorandum, and 
as all the written and printed matter is classified 
according to some form number and some serial 
number, this memorandum *^ provides identifica- 
tion numbers so that the material can be called 
for readily at the office." From the list the in- 
vestigator can locate at once all or any part of 
the material he will need at any time. A copy 
of the memorandum follows: — 

Serial I. Form s-a. 

Memorandum to field workers giving general serial 
number and form number for all material called 
for by the ^^Instructions to Field Workers^' 

The reference numbers are as follows: — 
A. For material under / of "Instruc- 
tions":— 

1. For scope and guide charts. 

(a) Preliminary Survey Serial I Form i 

(b) We want to know : — 

From the schools Serial I Form 2-a 

Training for industry " I " 2-6 

Kind of jobs in industry " I " 2-c 

2. Departmental chart " I " 3 

3. "Suggestions bearing on depart- 
mental chart" " I " 4 

4. "Memo, of statist, information" " I " 6 

5. Information from Employers 

(items 3 to 8, dept. chart) " I " 7 

56 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

6. Occupation cards, 25 in set Serial I Form 8 

7. Flourmill " III " 6 

8. Letters of introduction " I " 9 

9. Statistical information " II " i 

B. Material under V of "Instructions": — 

1. Place of art in industry: — 

(a) Manufacturers* schedule " IX " i 

(b) Specialty stores schedule ... " IX " 2 

(c) Department stores schedule. " IX " 3 

2. Noncommissioned officers of in- 
dustry " XII 

Departmental chart 

To illustrate the detail to which these direc- 
tions have been worked out, let us select topics 
2 and 3 under division A on the memorandum. 

The first is the departmental chart. This is a 
chart, 19 X 30 inches in size, with three large head- 
ings at the top, "Industry," "Establishment," 
"Department." Down the left side are twenty- 
six question groups needed for the report of the 
study of a particular industry, plant, and depart- 
ment. These questions relate to the job, its na- 
ture, its wages, its workers, its prospects, its 
required training, — in short, the points which 
when filled in on the chart will enable the survey 
committee to analyze intelligently the depart- 
ment and establishment represented and its con- 
tribution to the general knowledge of the indus- 
try in which it is classified. 

57 . 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Suggestions bearing on the departmental chart 

The second topic selected, or number 3, is a set 
of suggestions for field workers regarding the use 
of the departmental chart. They are very full 
and exact and much more complete than the syn- 
opsis of them which is here given. 

The questions on the departmental chart are 
arranged on the sheets of suggestions in the order 
that they appear on the chart and are numbered 
as on the chart. Under each of these numbered 
headings the field worker is given suggestions as 
to the meaning and scope of the question, the 
best method of approaching it, and the details of 
information that are desired. 

When it is remembered that this is done spe- 
cifically for each one of the twenty-six questions 
on the chart, it will be seen how important such 
directions seemed to the survey committee. 

As an example, take the directions given for 
question 9. 

9. What the Worker Does in the Occupation. 

I. What are the important operations per- 
formed by the worker? 
What is wanted is not a description of the manu- 
facturing process in which he is engaged, but an 
account and description of what the worker himself 

58 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

does. Watch him work. Keep your eyes on his ac- 
tions, not those of the machine, and record those 
actions that are important, showing judgment, skill, 
experience, or responsibility. 

2. What is the responsibility of the worker? 
By this is meant what is the essence of the task he 

performs, where his responsibility begins and ends. 

3. Illustrations. 

Below are given statements of what the worker 
does which illustrate what is meant by the above. 

Further instructions for field workers 

In addition to the above detailed suggestions, 
each field worker receives general instructions 
regarding the investigation he is doing. The fol- 
lowing important points may be noted: — 

Materials and aids 

I. The worker should have these things in his 
possession. 

1. Four scope and guide charts. 

(i) (3) Typewritten copies of the charts, 
''We want to Know.'' 

(2) Typewritten copies of the charts, 
''Preliminary Survey.'' 

(4) Pertinent and significant informa- 
tion should be noted, whether called 
for by the departmental chart or not. 

2. Some twenty-five or more copies of the 
departmental chart, 

59 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

3. A copy of the *' Suggestions bearing on the 
Departmental Chart." 

4. A few copies of ** Memorandum of Statis- 
tical Information from Employers." 

5. Some thirty to fifty copies of a blank 
reading "Industry-Plant-Location." One 
card for each occupation in the plant. 

6. Blanks for items on departmental chart. 

7. A write-up of the study of the flour mill 
industry. A guide, not a copy, of what the 
survey is trying to get. 

8. Letters of introduction and recommenda- 
tion. 

9. Statistical information furnished by the 
. State Department of Labor. Name, loca- 
tion, number of employees, specialties, 
etc., for each firm. 

11. Directions to field workers assigned to the 
study of an industry. 

[Here follow specific directions for the guidance of 
those possessing the material before mentioned and 
preparing to use the same. The directions are num- 
bered and like the "instructions" are much fuller 
than the general suggestive outline given here.] 

1. Not all establishments can be studied; take one 
of each important kind or type, each to be thor- 
oughly analyzed and described. 

2. Using the statistical sheets from the State De- 
partment of Labor, analyze all establishments 
of the city in the industry; choose one of each 

60 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

type and submit analysis and choice for ap- 
proval. 

Take letters of introduction to the oflSce of each 
plant studied; explain what you want to do; 
ask for assistance of the director if permission 
is refused. 

Get an analysis of the plant into departments 
from the manager or superintendent. Get an 
analysis of each department into jobs in order 
of sequence from the superintendent or depart- 
ment head. 

Have the office of the firm fill out blanks (see 
No. St under i, page 60), one for each occu- 
pation in the plant, answering questions 3 to 8, 
inclusive, on the departmental chart. (These 
questions have to do with employees hired and 
dropped and with wages.) Information strictly 
confidential. 

Interview foreman or department head to get 
answers for questions 9 to 26, inclusive. Use 
answer blanks (No. 6, under i, page 60.) 
Study the occupation yourself; go to the worker 
and check your information ; work back and forth 
between foreman and workers. Try different 
workers. (Use blanks Nos. 3 and 6, page 60.) 
When certain your information is correct, trans- 
fer to the departmental chart. Give cross-ref- 
erence to answer blanks. 

Study only one establishment of a type. Fin- 
ish up and write it up before starting a new type. 

61 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Use of cards for field notes 

10. A quantity of 4 x 6 cards for each question on 
the chart, except No. i, with headings for refer- 
ence and filing. 

11. Where obtained (here directions are given). 

12. Where to use, interviewing foremen, workers, 
etc., and in conferences with advisory commit- 
tees. 

13. How to use them; one card for each interview, 
etc. 

14. What to put on them; everything of significance, 
etc. 

15. What to do with them; assemble by "jobs or 
occupations"; use in forming concise statement 
of your conclusions, etc. 

16. Where finally to leave them (directions given). 

17. Minimum number of cards, twenty-five for 
every job studied. 

The reader will note here that the field worker 
has three different blanks for constant use. First, 
there are sets of twenty-five different cards, sev- 
eral of a kind, perhaps, one for each interview, 
but all pertaining to one job (see No. 6, page 60) ; 
second, are the blanks No. 5, under i, page 
60, one for each occupation or job in the plant, 
upon which are recorded questions regarding 
salary, hiring, dropping, etc.; and lastly, is the 
departmental chart, to which all the above in- 

62 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

formation is finally transferred in condensed 
form. The plant is then before the committee in 
complete form — individual opinions, jobs, de- 
partments, plant. 

III. The write-up of each study made. 

[Under this heading are given very complete direc- 
tions concerning the manner in which the informa- 
tion ascertained by the field workers is to be prepared 
and written up.] 

1. From your notes write up the study of the in- 
dustry. Confine yourself to items on the de- 
partmental chart. Supply the office of the sur- 
vey with information of any kind suggested by 
any of the material under No. i above. 

2. Study the write-up of the flour industry. Do 
not follow it, but be guided by it. 

3. Outline the way you propose to ''put up'' your 
material and submit same for approval. 

4. Tell your story in the simplest language and 
most direct way possible. 

5. Submit your write-up for consideration and 
suggestion and rewrite until you get it right. 

Conferences with representatives of other 
establishments of the same type 

I. Conferences will be arranged with as many 
employers of the same type as possible. Where 
business is organized, a joint conference of both 
employers and employees will be arranged or a 

63 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

separate conference arranged with each. Con- 
ferences will be held with advisory committees 
for all trades that have them. 

2. A copy of your write-up will be put in the hands 
of each member at the conference or sent to him 
in advance. It will be gone over word by word 
for criticism and suggestion. 

3. Rewrite until your story is approved by the 
trade and the oflSce. 

Other things to watch and do 

Watch for the place of art in the industries you 
study. Study the noncommissioned officer in each 
occupation. Analyze and make notes regarding 
points needed above those of the ordinary worker 
and such technical information as will help to reach 
these positions. 

Get information regarding,the kinds of schools and 
classes recommended by the trade for training prepara- 
tory to these occupations. See special instruction sheet. 

Special instruction sheet for training 

COULD SUCH INSTRUCTION BE MOST PRACTICALLY 
AND HELPFULLY GIVEN INSIDE OF THE INDUS- 
TRIAL ESTABLISHMENT, OR IN PART-TIME DAY 
COURSES, OR IN EVENING CLASSES IN SPECIAL 
SCHOOLS ? 

I. At the outset, the investigator must be able to 
explain what is meant by the different kinds of 
part-time schools and evening schools. This 
should be talked over with the director. 

64 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

2. Here again opinions of foremen, gang bosses, su- 
perintendents, and workers should be gathered. 

3. So the opinion of the field worker should be 
written. 

4. The director should gather same material from 
the advisory committee. 

This constitutes the general lay-out of the en- 
tire industrial survey. If the reader will study it 
carefully, in connection with the report of the 
National Society for the Promotion of Industrial 
Education on the Minneapolis Survey, he should 
have at hand all the general information neces- 
sary for planning and carrying out a similar sur- 
vey in his own locality. 

The Educational Survey 

It remains now to say a few words only regard- 
ing the educational or school survey. School sur- 
veys are not uncommon in this country, and are 
much easier to conduct than industrial surveys, 
and for this reason only a few general suggestions 
and a few details are included in this study. 

Extent 

To give anything like a comprehensive view of 
all the educational opportunities offered by a 
community for advancement in industrial lines, 

6s 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the investigator must examine much more than 
the curriculum of the ordinary public schools. 
Here consideration must be given to existing 
part-time and evening schools, private schools, 
Y.M.C.A. classes, commercial schools, classes 
conducted in commercial plants, and correspond- 
ence instruction. Before beginning the study of 
any of these groups, it is well to associate with the 
investigator an advisory local committee of influ- 
ential men who will assist and support the move- 
ment and help with the deduction of principles. 

The public school 

It is usually easy for the investigator to secure 
the course of study of the public day schools. 
The subjects therein given for the upper grades 
and high schools should be classified under three 
heads: those in no way related to industrial and 
commercial education, which group is eliminated; 
those indirectly bearing upon trade proficiency, 
set aside for further consideration; and those of a 
direct vocational nature. 

The classes of semi-industrial nature, such 
as economics, commercial geography, arithmetic, 
drawing, and chemistry, are then considered in 
the light of the findings of the industrial survey 
to see which of them, if any, are most likely to be 

66 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

supplying the educational wants shown by the 
study of the industries to be real needs. These 
classes will merit the most careful investigation. 
The other semi-vocational subjects may be given 
consideration as far as time and money permit, 
for the investigator can never tell where he may 
open up an unthought-of opportunity for advanc- 
ing technical information. Those public-school 
classes that are directly for vocational purposes, 
including all manual training, prevocational in- 
struction, vocational schools, trade schools, etc., 
under public direction, will naturally receive very 
careful attention. 

From these investigations the survey must 
establish how, when, and to what extent the 
public schools are providing the education, tech- 
nical knowledge, and special information that 
has been shown to be necessary for carrying out 
the local industrial program. It must determine 
where and what the omissions are and find the 
responsibility for such omissions if they are 
chargeable to the already existing classes. It 
must decide what additions, changes, and re- 
adaptations are desirable both for the schools and 
the industries, and it must set aside those educa- 
tional phases of vocational instruction that do 
not fall within the province of any public school. 

67 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Part-time and evening schools 

A careful survey must also be made of the part- 
time and evening schools, which are usually a 
most fruitful field for extending technical and 
trade information. Something of the scope of 
such an inquiry may be seen from the following 
outline used in Minneapolis: — 

Serial VIII. Form A. 

Questions submitted to evening schools 

1. What courses did you conduct in industrial, 
technical, and business subjects? 

a. How many classes in each subject? 

b. Total enrollment in each subject? 

c. Average attendance? 

d. Evenings a week? 

e. Weeks in the year? 

/. Total number of class meetings during 
the course? 
n. Entrance requirements: — 

a. Age? 

b. Scholarship? 

c. Experience? 

m. How do you get the pupils for the classes? 

a. By advertising? 

b. By soHcitors? 

c. By correspondence? 

d. Other methods? 

68 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

e. Are your present methods of securing 
students statisfactory to you? 

/. What methods are used to secure regu- 
lar attendance? 
IV. Have you specified times for admitting pupils? 

a. Have you preliminary registration or are 
pupils admitted at any time? 

b. If pupils are admitted at any time, how 
do you group them? 

By their desires? ... Or by their fit- 
ness, determined by conference with 
instructor or director? 

c. To what extent are students grouped 
according to their occupations or experi- 
ence? 

d. If possible, please give the registration in 
each class by occupation. 

e. What proportion of your students attend 
for two years? For three years? 

/. What proportion of your pupils have had 
correspondence-school courses? 
V, What tuition is charged for the instruction? 

a. Is tuition ''by the term," *'by the 
course'' or by the lesson? 

b. What additional fees are charged? 

c. Is any part of the tuition refunded? 
On what conditions? 

d. What tools, supplies, or texts are fur- 
nished by the student? 

e. Approximate cost? 

69 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

VL Instruction: — 

a. Is instruction by lectures? 
Class instruction? 

Or individual instruction? 

b. How many subjects may the student 
pursue in one term? 

c. Describe the equipment of the school for 
doing the work of each course. 

d. To what extent are textbooks used in 
various courses? 

e. Name texts used in each class. 
/. Are examinations given? 

g. Please furnish any examination questions 
which you may have in the subjects of- 
fered in your school. 

h. What certificate or other acknowledg- 
ment of the successful completion of sub- 
jects or course is given? 

i. What is the value of your certificate? 
In your own courses? 
In other schools? 
In securing a position? 

y. What facilities have you for placing 
graduates in positions? 
What follow-up records are kept of grad- 
uates? 
VII. Qualifications of instructors: — 

a. Academic training? 

J. Technical training? 

c. Trade or commercial experience? 

70 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

d. Personal quaKfications? 

List of machines used in business courses. 
VIII. Relations with employers: — 

a. Do employers come to you for help in 
securing promising employees? 

b. What efforts do you make to inform em- 
ployers that their employees are attend- 
ing evening school endeavoring to make 
themselves more proficient in their work? 

c. Do you have any advisory boards or 
conference committees of any kind from 
the business or trade to assist in stand- 
ardizing your instruction? If so, what 
do these committees do? 

With the answers to these questions in hand 
and having selected and placed beside them the 
educational and trade needs of all the occupations 
not otherwise provided for, the investigator can 
quickly and somewhat surely lay out the courses 
and classes that merit particular inquiry. The 
results of his personal investigation are then 
added to those from the public-school survey. 

Private and commercial schools 

In most communities the private schools will 
be of a business-school type. Occasionally pri- 
vate industrial schools or institutes will be found 
and will be investigated, either under the plan 

71 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

laid down for evening schools or under the one 
herewith submitted for commercial schools: — 

A. It is advisable first to form a committee of 
representative citizens. 

1. Number to be decided, S to lo. 

2. Duties: — 

Criticism, suggestion, and support. 

B. Study of the opportunities for commercial edu- 
cation given by the private schools. 

I. The standard of judging the school is 
based on the following factors: — 

(i) Prerequisite preparation of the 
pupils demanded by the school. 

(2) Equipment of school. 

(3) Experience and preparation of the 
teaching force. 

(4) Attitude of teacher and principal 
toward — 

(a) Education. 

(b) Practical work. 

(c) Placement. 

(d) Follow-up. 

(e) Survey. 

(s) Estimate of t5^e of teachers and 
pupils. 

(6) General atmosphere of the class- 
-room. 

(7) Follow-up of school graduates: with 
comment from employers on work. 

72 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

(8) Study of dropping out as a test of 
practicality of course. 

(9) Giving of tests worked out by Na- 
tional Associated Schools of Scien- 
tific Business, These tests to be 
given to five representative pupils 
of graduating class of each school 
for the purpose of determining 
individual eflSciency. 

C. The determination of the extent of solicitation 
on the part of private commercial schools. 

1. Interview with all pupils who have regis- 
tered and decided to enter private com- 
mercial schools upon leaving the eighth 
grade. 

2. The tentative investigation of typical 
schools: — 

(The investigation being a determina- 
tion of the number of eighth-grade chil- 
dren solicited, together with an interview 
with these children.) 

3. Selection of one class of freshmen in high 
schools as test for amount of solicitation 
private schools do in the summer. 

D. A comparison of the courses given in these 
schools with the commercial training found 
necessary to supply the requirements of local 
employers: — 

Are the courses full enough? 
Are they too general? 

73 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Is information accurate? 

Are local commercial methods used and local 

conditions regarded? 
Is preparation for specific work given or for 

general commercial uses? 
Are necessary courses lacking? 
E. Students: — 

Are students selected for fitness? 
Are students selected for age? 
Is successful follow-up work done? 
Have employers confidence in the work? 

The Commercial Industrial Survey 

If actual commercial opportunities and needs 
have not already been established in the course 
of the industrial survey, it will be necessary, 
along with the study of business schools, to con- 
duct an investigation into the opportunities and 
requirements for office work and other forms of 
commercial employment. The following sugges- 
tions will illustrate the nature of such an in- 
quiry: — 

A. Investigation of the occupational opportunities 

in a large number of representative offices. 

I. Types to be selected upon the advice of 

the advisory board and to include the 

entire range of work in small and large 

offices. 



74 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

2. Personal interviews with the employers 
on the question of the present success or 
failure of adequate preparation for office 
work on the part of public and private 
schools. The formulation of definite sug- 
gestions from the employer as to his re- 
quirements for the changes in th^ school 
curriculum which he is willing to advocate. 
His attitude toward cooperative classes. 

3. Checking of the list of office machines and 
equipment in use. 

4. Data on hours, wages, overtime, advance- 
ment, and physical conditions. 

B. Personal interview with boys and girls already 
placed in office work, for the purpose of getting 
the point of view of the worker in regard to 
preparation and opportunity. 

1. 125 pupils from public schools. 

2. 125 pupils from private schools. 
Random selection, 5 for each of the fol- 
lowing years: — 

1909-10 1911-12 1913-14 

1910-11 1912-13 

3. Individual records secured by settlements 
and social workers. 

C. Outline of opportunities for men and women. 

1. Advanced positions of special responsibil- 
ity. 

2. Direction of advancement from office 
work to any form of commercial work. 

75 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

(These facts to be obtained through the 
survey and by personal interview with 
men and women who have made good in 
business with a view of obtaining informa- 
tion as to the method of their success.) 
3. Opportunities for commercial work of low 
grade in small establishments, and what is 
minimum of education or training neces- 
sary, 

(i) To meet the demands of the work 
engaged in. 

(2) To fit worker for advancement. 

The conclusions and recommendations of the 
survey resulting from the entire investigation 
into commercial work and education may be 
then summed up something as follows: — 

A. Siunmary for conclusions. 

1. Basis: — 

(i) Present survey. 

(2) Survey of 1913 in Minneapolis, 
191 5 in Minneapolis. 

(3) The studies made in Boston and 
Cleveland, and the report of P. V. 
Thompson, "Commercial Educa- 
tion in Public Secondary Schools.'' 

2. Interpretation of the evidence gathered 
as a means of throwing light on the organi- 
zation of commercial work in public and 
private schools. 

76 



MAKING THE SURVEY 

(i) Whether a four-year course is the 
best plan. 

(2) Where the point of selection of 
definitely vocational courses should 
be reached by the pupil. 

(3) Whether a two-year commercial 
course is necessary or valuable. 

(4) Comparison of success of pupils — 

(a) Of less than high-school edu- 
cation. 

(b) Of less than common-school 
education. 

(5) Whether a fifth year of expert tech- 
nical training is needed. 

(6) Need of standard of apprenticeship 
system — 

(a) Through cooperative courses. 

(b) Through probation period. 
Concluding statement of the attitude of 
the survey toward public and private com- 
mercial schools. 

(i) What is their present function? 

(2) Are any of their methods detri- 
mental to the good of the student, 
the vocation, or the public? 

(3) If these schools are found in any 
way to be either wasteful or detri- 
mental, what is the fairest and best 
method of dealing with them? 

(4) Are they filling all the needs of the 
local commercial occupations? 

77 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

(5) If not, can they be reorganized to do 
so? 

(6) Are additional facilities needed for 
commercial instruction? 

Other Forms of Education 

The foregoing outlines will suffice to indicate 
the form of inquiry that would be made into 
Y.M.C.A. classes, private short courses, and cor- 
respondence schools. All these avenues of ap- 
proach to the practically minded student should 
be included in the investigations of the survey. 
The correspondence school especially should be 
thoroughly studied to find out just how many 
people it is reaching, how long it holds them, 
what it actually does for them, their trade ad- 
vancement resulting from this study, cost, meth- 
ods of instruction, methods of advertisement and 
publicity, and such other facts as may help to 
show their value and true function in the local 
educational scheme. 

What has been said here upon the educational 
survey is recognizedly far from complete, but it 
would seem that a pretty definite idea has been 
given as to the nature, scope, and method of such 
a survey, and this is the only end which it is 
possible to attain without going far outside the 
province of a book of this nature. 



Ill 

SELECTING THE COURSE 

Advisory Boards 

Once the answers to the inquiries suggested in our 
opening section have been fully formulated and 
the kinds and types of schools that should be 
established have been decided upon, it devolves 
at once upon the local authorities to prepare 
courses of study presenting the nature and details 
of the instruction to be given in each course and 
in each subject of the course. Where this in- 
struction is to deal with direct prevocational 
training, trade-preparatory material, trade-ex- 
tension work, or actual trade instruction for 
pupils over sixteen years of age, it is advisable 
and well-nigh absolutely necessary to associate 
with the authorities directing the work an advis- 
ory board of representative citizens to assist in 
the formation of courses. 

An advisory board may or may not have execu- 
tive powers, and its function differs from those of 
the regular board of education in that the former 
is a group of specially selected men who are par- 

79 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

ticularly fitted to give advice regarding the ac- 
tual subject-matter to be taught and may not 
have any authority over the autonomy of the 
school, whereas the latter directs the actual busi- 
ness conduct of the institution and seldom is 
capable of giving expert advice regarding the 
information to be imparted or the means and 
methods used to impart it. 

An advisory board should consist of from five 
to seven members, excepting where there are a 
large number of trades in one school, when it is 
well to have each trade represented on the board. 
In some cases it is found better to have a separate 
board for each skilled trade taught. This insures 
careful supervision of the material used for in- 
struction, but may prove exceedingly awkward 
unless the function of such boards is purely ad- 
visory and not executive. 

In general an advisory board should be made up 
of an educator, preferably the executive ofiicer of 
the school, representatives of employers, or, bet- 
ter still, the employers themselves, and skilled 
employees from local plants. Wherever the trade 
represented has a local labor union, a representa- 
tive of organized labor should have a place on 
the board. The personnel of the board should be 
selected with a view to preventing a monopoly of 

80 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

direction by any one interest, while affording rep- 
resentation to all, and at the same time bringing 
to the service of the school the intelligent advice, 
interest, influence, and standing of the strongest 
and most influential people of the locality. 

It should be the duty of this board or boards to 
pass final approval upon the subject-matter of the 
trade instruction to be given, and also upon the 
order in which the various projects are presented. 
The members should also pass upon the equip- 
ment, nature, and price, before it is purchased, 
and upon all other matters that pertain distinctly 
to the technique and science of the business un- 
der consideration. 

This board may also aid in working up coop- 
eration between the employers of labor and the 
school by championing the adoption of such un- 
derstandings as the one indicated by the follow- 
ing card, which is given by Rochester firms to 
young people applying for positions: — 

At the present time this firm is only employing 
workers (under eighteen years of age) recommended 
by the Department of Public Instruction. If you de- 
sire a position we would suggest that you communi- 
cate with Raymond C. Keople, 308 Municipal Build- 
ing. Hours 9 to 10 A.M., 4. 30 to 5.30 P.M. 

Yawman & Erbe Mfg. Co. 
81 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

By such means the trade schools reach many 
new pupils and the employers secure much better 
workers. 

Trade Agreements 

One of the most valuable services that an 
advisory board can render to any school is to 
assist in bringing about a series of trade agree- 
ments between the school and the employers and 
between the school and organized labor. A trade 
agreement means a complete written understand- 
ing between the school and an employer of labor; 
for instance, regarding the instruction and train- 
ing to be offered in the school and in the shop to 
workmen and apprentices employed by the con- 
tracting manufacturer. It specifies how long the 
course shall be, its details, how many pupils shall 
enter, and what shall be required for satisfactory 
completion of the work. 

The school defines the arrangement of time in 
the week; the employer contracts to allow pay for 
certain specific school hours and agrees to hire so 
many graduates at a fixed rate of pay when the 
course is over, or to continue in his employ a cer- 
tain number of graduates at a stipulated increase, 
if the men are already on his pay-roll. The trade 
union would at the same time allow a certain per 

82 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

cent credit on apprenticeship time to such of its 
apprentices as satisfactorily completed this extra 
work. 

The above is an ideal case. In actual practice 
such agreements usually fall into four large divi- 
sions. 

Tentative agreements 

A tentative agreement is one in which the em- 
ployer gives his approval to the idea of trade 
training for his men, agrees to urge his appren- 
tices to take such training, and signifies his will- 
ingness to cooperate with the school, and to be 
guided in his selection and payment of appren- 
tices by the results actually attained. 

General agreements 

In a general trade agreement the employer 
gives his approval to particular specified courses 
of study, and agrees to give those who complete 
these courses special consideration when he hires 
new men, and also to favor them in times of slack 
work when employees are laid off. An example 
of such a trade agreement follows: — 



83 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Steamfitters 

Memorandum of courses for journeymen steam- 
fitters and helpers at the William Hood Dunwoody 
Industrial Institute for the year 191 5-16: — 

I. The approval of the union and the employer of 
these evening courses is asked: — 

(a) Free evening classes for journeymen 
steamfitters and helpers will be offered 
at the Dunwoody Institute for the year 
1915-16. 

(b) These classes will begin in October and 
continue through the winter. 

(c) Classes will be continued so long as an 
average attendance of not less than 12 
persons is maintained. 

(d) The following unit courses, attached to 
this report and marked "Exhibit A," 
will be offered. 

(e) Upon the completion of any unit course 
a certificate to this effect will be issued 
to the student by the Dunwoody Insti- 
tute. 

II. The approval by the union and the employer of 
this arrangement for the further training of 
helpers is asked: — 

(a) The Steamfitters' Union is to require all 
helpers entering the steamfitting work 
after August i, 1915, to attend, for two 

84, 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

seasons of not less than seven months 
each, evening classes at the Dunwoody 
Institute, bearing on steamfitting not 
less than two nights a week. 

(b) The employers shall agree to give prefer- 
ence in the employment of workers to 
the helpers attending such classes and 
in the reduction of their force in dull 
times to give the same preference. 

(c) That an advisory committee of five 
members be appointed by the trustees 
of the Institute, two of whom shall be 
employers and two employees engaged 
in the steamfitting business. The fifth 
member of the committee, who shall be 
its chairman, shall be a representative 
of the school. 

(d) The authorities of the school, with the 
advice and assistance of the advisory 

• committee so secured, are to assist in 
standardizing the work of this dull- 
season school. 

v|T I hereby approve of the above plan and agree to 

carry it out so far as _ ^^^ [ concerned. 
•^ we are ) 

(Signed) 



{Name of person or firm) 

85 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Specific trade agreement 

The specific trade agreement is like the general 
trade agreement in that it specifies definite 
courses to be completed, with the nature, time, 
and other details of the course. It differs from 
the other agreements in that the employers here 
agree, either to hire a certain specified number of 
graduates each year, term, or other unit of time, 
or to hire as many of the graduates as trade con- 
ditions warrant at the time, and to start them at 
a fixed wage, given in the agreement, and to give 
regular advancement after three, six, nine months 
of work, or according to some similar scheme of 
wage agreement. 

The following agreement, from among those 
now in use in the city of Rochester, will further 
illustrate this kind of understanding: — 

For Machinists 

I. That the Shop School shall give to boys who 
are not less than fourteen years old and who 
have completed at least the sixth grade, or pref- 
erably to boys who have completed the work of 
the elementary schools, a general industrial or 
"try-out" course of such length as the school 
authorities may deem necessary, and shall 

86 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

select those who have an aptitude for and an 
ambition toward the trade of machinist. 

2. That the Shop School shall give boys thus 
selected a preparatory course of approximately 
two years, one half of each day being spent in 
shop practice and the other half in the study 
of shop mathematics, mechanical drawing, 
applied science, industrial history, civics, and 
English. 

3. That upon the satisfactory completion of this 
course the metal trades employers of Roch- 
ester shall employ these boys in such num- 
bers as trade conditions and shop management 
shall warrant, at the following schedule of 
wages: — 

$ 9.00 per week for the first six months. 

$10.00 per week for the second six months. 

$11.00 per week for the third six months. 

$12.00 per week for the fourth six months. 

(Note). In the event of any boys earning by 
piece work more than the above scale, the 
balance shall be held back by the employer 
and paid to the boy as a bonus at the comple- 
tion of the two years' apprenticeship. 

4. That during the two years' apprenticeship the 
employer shall allow each boy, during working 
hours, an amount of time ojff equivalent to one 
half-day each week, for continuing his studies, 
such time to be taken when manufacturing 
conditions will best permit. 

87 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

5. That the first three months of employment, 
as provided in Articles 3 and 4 shall be con- 
sidered a probationary period and the diploma 
of the school shall not be awarded until the 
satisfactory completion of this probationary 
period. 

6. That the members of the Machine Industry 
shall select a committee of three of their num- 
ber who shall: — 

(i) Inspect frequently the work of the Shop 
School and offer criticisms and sugges- 
tions for the improvement of the work. 

(2) Suggest tests that shall measure the pu- 
pil's progress in manipulation skill and 
technical knowledge. 

(3) Suggest tests that shall measure the 
qualifications of boys for graduation. 

Board of Education, 

Attention of Alfred P, Fletcher y 

Assistant SupL, Rochester, N,Y. 
Gentlemen: — 

We are interested in your proposition to train 
boys for the machinists' trade and if business con- 
ditions are normal, we shall be able, in 1916, to take 
two boys, 18 years old, as apprentices, after having 
completed a two years' course in the Machine 
Department at the Rochester Shop School. These 
boys will be employed by us at the following wage 
scale: — 

88 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

$ 8.00 for the first six months. 
$ 9.00 for the second six months. 
$10.00 for the third six months. 
$11.00 for the fourth six months. 
With a bonus of $100.00 to the boy who completes 
two years' work with us. 

We would be willing to allow the boy the equiva- 
lent of one half-day off weekly to continue his work 
in the Shop School and would pay him for this time. 

Yours truly, 
Eastman Kodak Co. 
(Signed) J, H. Haste, Mgr. 

Agreement with Rochester Master Painters and 
Decorators Association 

1. The Shop School shall give to the boys who 
are about sixteen years old and who have com- 
pleted at least the seventh grade, or prefer- 
ably to boys who have completed the work of 
the elementary schools, a general industrial or 
"try-out" course of such length as the school 
authorities may deem necessary, and shall select 
those who have an aptitude for and an ambition 
toward the trade of painting. 

2. The Shop School shall give boys thus selected 
a preparatory course of approximately two 
years, one half of each day being spent in shop 
practice and the other half in the study of 
shop mathematics, mechanical drawing, ap- 

89 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

plied science, industrial history, civics, and 
English. 

3. Upon the satisfactory completion of this course 
the painting employers of Rochester shall em- 
ploy these boys in such numbers as trade con- 
ditions or shop management shall warrant, at 
the following scale of wages: — 

$2.00 per day for the first year. 
$2.50 per day for the second year. 
$3.00 per day for the third year. 

4. The members of the Master Painters and Dec- 
orators Association of Rochester shall select a 
committee of three of their number, who shall, 
first, inspect frequently the work of the Shop 
School and offer suggestions and criticisms for 
the improvement of the work; second, suggest 
tests that shall measure the pupils' progress in 
manipulative skill and technical knowledge; 
third, suggest tests that shall measure the 
qualifications of the boys for graduation. At 
a recent meeting of the employers of painting, 
sixteen, or all present, agreed each to take a 
boy in 1916, 

During the second year at school, the em- 
ployers will use the boys whenever possible, 
and pay them $1.00 per day. 

Personal agreements 

In somes intances the employer has agreed 
with the individual apprentice directly, offering 

90 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

to hire or increase the wages of the worker named 
in the agreement after a certain number of weeks 
spent in the trade-instruction class, provided the 
agreement is countersigned by the school authori- 
ties at the completion of the period. 

Of course there is every possibility for varia- 
tion of the above to conform to local demands, 
but the principle of all trade agreements is the 
same, to offer an incentive to the beginner in the 
school and to provide assured outlet for the suc- 
cessful graduates. 

With the advice and cooperation of the advis- 
ory board, the local investigator would now turn 
his attention to the problem of fixing the courses 
of study to be offered in the different classes that 
have been decided upon as a result of the survey 
reports. 

Determining the Course of Study 

Well-organized^ highly skilled trades 

The simplest possible case is the one where a 
large number of beginners are employed in the 
early processes of an industry that follows these 
processes by others, growing more and more diffi- 
cult, to which but few of these beginners succeed 
in attaining. Furniture designing, interior deco- 

91 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

rating, stained-glass window-making will illus- 
trate this on the art side; astronomical lens- 
grinding, the boring and rifling of cannon, and 
work of like nature are other examples more 
largely dependent on skill. 

Field for advancement 

Where the number of skilled workers offering 
themselves for advanced processes is less than 
the number required, or where it can be shown 
that a fair percentage of the beginners can be 
provided for higher up when they are competent 
to advance, we have a clear field. All the indus- 
tries just mentioned above are in this category, 
and as a more unexpected instance it may be 
cited that the demand for expert tinsmiths and 
cornice workers now far exceeds the supply. 

On what does advancement depend? 

Charles R. Richards, in his admirable treat- 
ment of this subject, points out that the first 
thing to determine is whether the advancement 
will depend upon skill alone, technical knowl- 
edge alone, or a combination of these two. Mr. 
O'Leary divides technical knowledge into two 
parts, *Hrade knowledge," generally picked up 
by the mechanic in his trade experience, and 

92 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

"technical information," which comes from 
more or less formal study and training. 

Trade needs determine course 

In any case I maintain that the course of study 
must be based directly and in most cases abso- 
lutely upon the needs of the industry itself and 
not upon the value of the instruction from an 
educational or pedagogical point of view. 

Need for skill 

If it can be shown that skill alone is needed, 
then skill must be provided first, last, and al- 
ways, no matter what else is taught. As exam- 
ples may be mentioned machine-tending, and 
the work of packing, boxing, and sorting, ironing 
shirts, counting money, and many other occupa- 
tions of like nature. The authority conducting 
the trade school should then study each successive 
step in the industry from a very different stand- 
point from that of the first investigation. He 
should find out in each detail of the work just 
what skill is required. Consult with experts and 
old employees to find out what parts in the differ- 
ent processes have proved the greatest stumbling- 
blocks to advancement. Such stumbling-blocks 
are the laying of round chimneys for the brick- 

93 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

layer, arches for the mason, irregular and coni- 
cal roof-framing for a carpenter. He should lay 
out his course to provide this skill in successive 
steps, laying the greatest emphasis upon those 
parts that, in the experience of the past, have 
caused the retardation of the largest number. 
In other words, we must teach pupils the specific 
trade and the subjects taught must be determined 
by the actual demand of the employer. 

Need of technical knowledge 

If it be found that technical knowledge is 
needed alone or in connection with skill, provide 
for this technical knowledge, but do not confuse 
it with general technical knowledge. A carpenter 
wants no course in general mechanics, but a 
course in the mechanics of structural woodwork- 
ing. Provide your technical knowledge as specif- 
ically as you provide skill, based upon the same 
minute investigation of need and consultation 
with experts. Whatever general principles are 
needed, give them with their immediate applica- 
tion to the business in hand. 

Both skill and technical knowledge needed 

If it be found advisable to give both skill and 
technical knowledge, the foregoing principles 

94 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

will still apply, and the instruction in each of 
these branches should in general be separated 
from the other. There are occasions when both 
the skill and the technical knowledge may be 
given at one and the same time, when they must 
be given together; as in the case of a butcher, 
who can only learn the exact location, size, qual- 
ity, etc., of different cuts of meat by actually 
engaging in the cutting of meat. In most cases, 
however, the skill must be given in the shop inde- 
pendent of both general and special information, 
and the technical knowledge can be given either 
inside or outside of the actual working place. 
Wherever it might meet, the class in technical 
information would be organized as a unit sepa- 
rate from the shop force. Whenever a class is 
organized in this way, as a distinct unit, there will 
arise the question, Shall it be a part-time class, 
meeting at hours set apart in the daytime, or an 
evening class? 

When shall the Instruction be given? 

So long as the work is collateral with the years 
of apprenticeship it must be one of these two. 
But it is quite possible that the question will also 
be raised as to the value of giving certain techni- 
cal information in an all-day school preceding the 

95 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

entry into industry or in a similar school follow- 
ing the earlier years of work and fitting for more 
advanced positions yet to come. 

The day school 

In such cases as those presented by electric- 
power-plant engineers and operators, stationary 
steam engineers, and expert telephone or tele- 
graph erecting foremen and inspectors, there is 
good reason to believe that a one-year all-day 
course preceding the actual entry into the busi- 
ness would be valuable. Certainly a one- or even 
two-year all-day course following some years 
of apprenticeship and directed to the scientific 
study of the advanced theory and practice of 
these trades, together with efiiciency, manage- 
ment, etc., will bring abundant financial return to 
any competent man who completes it. The chief 
engineer of a large car-heating company told me 
last year that he was not concerned for a trade 
school to teach the technique of his business, nor 
yet for a part-time school to assist in such teach- 
ing. He wanted boys to come to him already 
grounded in the fundamental principles of shop 
drawing, shop arithmetic, carefulness, accuracy, 
and attention to all directions, just such work as 
is given in the New York general industrial day 

96 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

school, and maintained that he would then teach 
them his business and guarantee them lucrative 
places. Before taking up, therefore, the part-time 
and evening schools, it will be well to give rather 
careful consideration to the problem of all-day 
trade-school instruction. 

Three types of day schools 

To my thinking, at the present stage of trade 
education there are only three types of all-day 
industrial schools that can justify themselves for 
public financial support. This does not in any 
way reflect upon the value of privately supported 
institutions which do not correspond to one of 
these types and of which there are numerous 
excellent examples in this country. 

The prevocational school 

The first of these three types is the commonly 
called prevocational school, which industrializes 
the final two years of an elementary-school 
course, and should be used only in districts where 
a large number of children attending the common 
schools come from the homes of tradespeople, a 
very small percentage of whom would give their 
children schooling beyond the elementary grades. 

The course of study in such a school should 

97 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

bear upon a limited number of the most promising 
industries of the locaKty, and if it is partially 
State-supported, on a few of the most attractive 
general industries found in the State. The work 
of all the elementary grades preceding, which can 
be applied to these industries, should be applied; 
drawing, mathematics, and whatever else can be 
found fundamental to a group of the industries 
included in the curriculum should be given in 
concrete and appHed form. The shop work should 
be varied enough to discover the special apti- 
tudes of the pupils, but at the same time it should 
consist of actual trade processes, done to trade 
standards and by the approved methods of the 
commercial shop. The drawing and arithmetic 
should all originate in the shops through actual 
needs for the same. Although the finishing, 
tracing, and blue-printing may be done in the 
drafting-room and the mathematics problems 
worked out in the classroom, the moving spirit 
of this coordinated work should be an acknowl- 
edged need felt in the shop or workroom itself. 

The elementary trade school 

The second type of school is an elementary 
trade school, and offers training for those chil- 
dren only who are not yet sixteen years of age, 

98 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

who have completed the regular common-school 
course provided by the community, and who have 
definitely selected a trade v\rhich will not allow 
them to work as apprentices until after their 
sixteenth birthday. The purpose of such a school 
is twofold: to prepare for entrance into a skilled 
trade, and to prevent young men and women 
entering blind-alley and unskilled occupations 
because their chosen trade will not be open to 
them for one or two years. Such a school should 
not train, except on a part-time basis, for any 
calling that will accept its pupils in general pro- 
ductive labor. It should not accept pupils who 
have not completed the common-school course 
unless it conducts prevocational classes similar 
to those in type one. The curriculum of such a 
school will be essentially the same as that of the 
part-time school for the same trade, except that 
the shop work will all be done in the school and 
will include a large number of simple processes 
that were omitted from the specific shop instruc- 
tion of pupils who are at the same time working 
in the trade. The classroom instruction in sci- 
ence, drawing, commercial geography, shop math- 
ematics, or whatever is given, should be related 
to the real needs of the trade and not be influ- 
enced by the type of work done in the common 

99 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

schools. The shop work should be laid out in a 
system of definite steps based upon processes 
increasing in complexity and degree of skill re- 
quired, rather than upon a series of jobs to help 
the pupil over stumbling-blocks and supplement 
the daily work in the trade, as was done in the 
part-time evening classes. It is often a very 
good idea to arrange these steps in groups, each 
group a short-unit course in form, but not in 
t>pe, and these units linked together in logical 
order to shape the student's complete experience. 
A very large number of these steps — as many 
as possible — should be real cormnercial jobs and 
not mere exercises. A trade-school pupil might 
better be set to work wdth practice material to 
perfect himself in some process, in order to con- 
tinue his work upon a commercial job by using 
that process on the job as soon as he is fitted to 
do it, than to be given an exercise piece upon that 
process, only to see the piece scrapped after com- 
pletion and another exercise take its place. 

This all-day school has two very decided ad- 
vantages over the part-time and evening school. 
The first is an economic advantage, that of time. 
The pupiPs entire day being under the direction 
of one superintendent, no time lost in going and 
coming from factory, and the shop practice be- 

lOO 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

ing laid out more exactly than is possible where 
production commercially is part of the scheme, 
enables the school to cover more ground in shop 
and class instruction than can be covered by 
part-time classes in the same number of days, 
even if the time given to shop work is exactly the 
same in both cases. The second advantage is 
pedagogical : it is the advantage of being able to 
control the pupiFs entire experience, class, shop, 
play, environment during the daytime, associ- 
ates, and instructors, and is more valuable for 
younger than for older pupils. It must be ac- 
knowledged that because of these advantages the 
supporters of all-day trade schools for all kinds 
of trade training have some very good arguments; 
but I am still of the opinion that where the part- 
time system can be established, the advantages 
to the apprentice outweigh the losses of the all- 
day system. The time spent in school will still 
dominate much of his experience, and there is no 
place in which to learn promptness, speed, obedi- 
ence, trade standards, the value of time, value of 
material, value of initiative, the sociology of the 
wage-earner, and learn them well, that is the 
equal of a well-conducted shop, factory, or busi- 
ness house. 



lOI 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

The advanced trade school 

The third type of all-day publicly supported 
trade school is the other extreme. It is the high- 
est type of trade school imaginable below the 
technical college. To it should come men and 
women with distinctly assigned educational re- 
quirements capable of sustained interest and an 
appreciation of deferred rewards. This school 
should fit only for those of the high skilled indus- 
tries that demand a large fund of technical in- 
formation which it is difficult to acquire except 
through an extended course of training. Each 
course should deal with all the basic principles 
of the subject, the application of these principles, 
their coordination in the industry, and anything 
else that can be shown to be demanded for suc- 
cessful competition in that particular field. 

For the present, at least, I should leave all the 
industrial education that falls between these two 
extremes to the part-time day school, the eve- 
ning classes, and the short-unit courses, although 
I am convinced that the all-day industrial school 
must form the cornerstone of our great American 
system of industrial training, because it stands 
both below and above the other sources of train- 



I02 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

Part-time and evening classes 

We will return now to a discussion of the rela- 
tive value of part-time and evening instruction, 
because the vast majority of employers will de- 
pend upon either the part-time or evening school 
for the training of their employees. 

The part-time class has several advantages 
over the evening class. In the first place, a full 
and steady attendance is assured; it is more 
closely connected with real work in the mind of 
the apprentice if it comes in working hours; the 
students are mentally more capable of attacking 
new principles. In the cases of street-pavement 
layers, building carpenters, and men who work 
all day in the open air, this last factor is not so 
important; but for indoor workers in shops and 
factories, salesgirls, draftsmen, and workers in all 
such occupations the evening classes are likely to 
prove a mental and physical strain. The part- 
time class in a somewhat different form may also 
be adapted to the seasonal occupations. A large 
number of occupations, like road construction, 
farming, and inland water navigation, cannot be 
pursued at all seasons of the year. During slack 
seasons the younger of the employees may be in 
attendance upon a part-time school. In much 

103 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the same manner the part-time class can be ar- 
ranged to fit the slack hours of regular trades. A 
grocer needs his men in the morning and a baker 
does not. A barber has dull hours that are almost 
always the same from day to day; similarly with 
the hotel-keepers and restaurant proprietors. 
The part-time school may fit their needs exactly. 
It would appear, therefore, that where the part- 
time class can be arranged for, it will certainly 
give good results, as will also a combination of 
part-time and evening work as described later; 
but considering all types of classes that might be 
formed and the general attitude of the employer 
as it is expressed to-day, in most cases an eve- 
ning school will do the most good to the largest 
number. 

Right here let me say that two nights a week, 
with good attendance watched and enforced, is 
much more valuable than four nights a week, 
with twenty-five to forty per cent of absences, 
no rigid rules of attendance, and consequently 
an ever-shifting audience for the instructor. The 
best method of obtaining good attendance in 
evening classes is through trade agreements with 
unions and employers which bring forces to bear 
upon the apprentice that he cannot well afford 
to affront. Where he is allowed certain credit in 

104 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

money or on apprenticeship service for his time 
in the evening classes, he is pretty likely to give 
good attendance. Compulsory attendance by 
State law is resorted to in some instances and 
may be worked out to give very beneficial results. 
A substantial fee may be charged on registering 
and returned to those having seventy-five per 
cent attendance, or all credit toward a night- 
school certificate may be dependent upon a fixed 
minimum attendance record. Attendance in all 
cooperative schemes of education is a factor that 
needs more consideration than it has heretofore 
received, and we have already, under ''Trade 
agreements," mentioned some ways in which the 
employer and trade union may help in the matter. 

Where shall the Instruction be given? 

Having determined when the instruction in both 
skill and technical information is to be given, 
the authorities laying out the course must deter- 
mine next where this instruction is to be given. 

In a special building 

Where skill alone is required and can be given 
with an inexpensive equipment in some build- 
ing set aside for it, it might better be done in 
this way. Most of the skill needed for pattern- 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

making and bricklaying and the advanced work 
in printing can be given in this way. It is very 
difl&cult to give this skill during the regular 
day's work. 

In the plant during special hours 

If the equipment is large and expensive, such 
as manufacturing machinery, an arrangement 
should be made to use the machinery in the plant 
itself out of working hours, the cost being as- 
sumed by the community. It is to be understood, 
of course, that the skill referred to here is not the 
general skill that comes through daily practice 
in the routine of the trade, but special skill which 
can be acquired much more quickly by specific 
instruction and practice, skill that is diflScult for 
the apprentice to pick up in the shop, or that 
involves in the learning process a waste of ma- 
terial, the skill that helps the beginner over his 
stumbling-blocks. It is the "quality" of skill, 
the "quantity" being left to the commercial 
practices. 

Within and without the plant 

Where both skill and technical knowledge are 
required, an arrangement might well be made to 
give the former in the shop or factory, under a 

1 06 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

rompetent instructor working in specific time set 
aside from the regular working day, while the 
latter would be given in evening classes meeting 
in some public school. The illustrations already 
given, chemical processes, wall-paper designing, 
gunsmithing, electrical and stationary engineer- 
ing, machinists, optical workers, and scores of 
other highly skilled trades, require skill and 
technical knowledge, and the equipment for ac- 
quiring skill is too large and expensive to be 
duplicated in the ordinary trade school. In such 
cases the apprentice should be paid for the time 
given to instruction in the shop. 

Reorganization within the plant 

Under certain conditions this shop instruction 
can be given to apprentices during working hours 
and in connection with regular productive labor, 
instead of using the plant out of working hours in 
time specifically set aside for instruction. In such 
a case the authorities in charge of the instruction 
must insist upon a reorganization of the appren- 
ticeship work in the factory to cooperate with the 
organization of the trade school. Under an ar- 
rangement of this kind, the theory of wall-paper 
design would be taught in a class meeting for 
instruction purposes only, while the same appren- 

107 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

tices would acquire drawing technique during 
their regular daily work of tracing, coloring, en- 
larging and modifying the designs of others. 
Chemical and metallurgical processes, comple- 
mentary drawing and mathematics for skilled 
trades like gunsmithing, tool- and cutter-making, 
etc., would form the basis of class instruction, 
the skill being given in a reorganized apprentice- 
ship instruction upon the shop floor. Certain 
parts of the technical work, which would be 
classified under Mr. O'Leary's head of ''trade 
knowledge," might be more readily taught in the 
shop, in conjunction with skill, than in the class- 
room and would be so arranged. There would 
also be cases where the more formal technical 
information would need to be taught in the shop, 
as the theory and practice of indexing on a miller, 
but it would be done in time specifically set aside 
for the instructor's use, and not, like skill, in the 
daily routine of work. 

Master of apprentices 

That part of the factory work which is to pro- 
vide the skill must be under the direction of a 
competent master of apprentices, who shall be 
responsible for their training in skill, so that it 
will not be left to the haphazard attention of the 

io8 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

foreman or superintendent. Mr. Magnus Alex- 
ander, of the General Electric Company in Lynn, 
Massachusetts, was especially designated by 
that company to direct the work of its appren- 
tices. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- 
road employs a master of apprentices, who, with 
the aid of numerous assistants, directs the begin- 
ner's training throughout the entire system. The 
master workman holding such a position must 
lay out the processes to be taught in a definite 
and systematic plan, rotate his apprentices so 
that each one will pass through the series of proc- 
esses, give such assistance as is needed, keep an 
individual record of the accomplishment of each 
apprentice, and keep in touch with the classroom 
work, if there is any. 

Dangers to he avoided 

The danger of this system is the exploitation 
of the boy. When he works in regular hours at 
regular work, the tendency to keep him on one 
job which he is doing well and rapidly is well-nigh 
irresistible. When properly done, this method of 
rotation at regular work will give even better re- 
sults than segregative instruction in all the lower 
grades of skill and in most of the higher grades, 
excepting only such high-grade work as requires 

109 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the constant attention of one instructor and 
where the processes of production are slow and 
expensive, like steel engraving and high-grade 
optical work. The employer will benefit materi- 
ally by all this instructing of apprentices; I be- 
lieve thoroughly in the system commonly used in 
Europe, where the apprentice attends school 
about ten hours a week, four on his employer's 
time and six on his own time. 

Wherever a community feels that it is advis- 
able to do some of the instructing in the daytime 
on the employer's time, the employer should 
willingly cooperate, but if he refuses, a law com- 
pelling him to allow such instruction would be 
justifiable. On the other hand, the instruction 
so given must bear directly upon his work: 
namby-pamby courses, general education, etc., 
ought not to be provided at the expense of an 
employer. 

Art in Industry 

This subject is so closely related to courses of 
study that must be pursued in training for the 
advanced positions of many of the well-organized 
and highly skilled trades, and lends itself so read- 
ily to formal instruction in any type of trade 
school, that it has been found inadvisable to re- 

IIO 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

late it specifically to any of the foregoing topics. 
It well deserves a title of its own. 

Whoever is planning any of the courses of in- 
struction heretofore referred to must give careful 
consideration to the place in the course that shall 
be assigned to instruction in the theory and prac- 
tical application of the principles of art, taste, 
and design required for perfection in the trade. 
Some idea of the wide application of such train- 
ing may be had from a glance at the following list 
of occupations in the city of Minneapolis which 
have deserved a study especially from the stand- 
point of the art involved : — 

Agricultural implements, artificial stone, auto- 
mobiles, baskets, boots, shoes, brass and bronze 
products, brick and tiles, boxes, paper, fancy 
goods, rattan, willow split, bicycles, department 
and retail store purchase and display, architects, 
advertisers, carpenters, painters, interior deco- 
rators, paper hangers, and many others. 

To determine exactly what place art shall have 
in the outline of work and the exact nature of the 
instruction to be given, we must again resort to 
an investigation of the trade itself. 

What positions are there where the employees 
can exercise taste? What training are they re- 
ceiving in this direction? Do they succeed in 

III 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

getting all the training needed under present 
conditions? Is there a demand by the consumer 
for improvement in the appearance of the prod- 
uct? Could a training be given to those seeking 
the positions listed above that would enable them 
to satisfy this demand? Exactly what should this 
training be? Should it accent color, form, finish, 
or quality, — all of them, or which of them? Is 
design, original or adapted, an important factor? 
Where the trade involves distributing rather 
than producing, it is desirable to know whether 
color, harmony, line, textures, proportions, and 
the acquisition of a convincing vocabulary along 
these lines will prove desirable. Take, for in- 
stance, the making of book-covers, carpets and 
rugs, cut-glass, draperies, embroidery, furniture, 
jewelry, millinery, ribbons, toys and notions, — 
the art for production is not the same as that 
needed for distribution. Design, originality, a 
mastery of color harmony, a knowledge of the 
relationship of the design to the actual process 
of manufacture, and the demand of the con- 
sumer are necessary for production. To sell these 
wares requires no special ability in design, a good 
knowledge of color harmony, no knowledge of the 
principles of manufacture, but a close touch 
with the demand of the consumer. It demands a 

112 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

training in taste, proportion, finish, quality, an 
ability to read human nature, and a vocabulary 
sufficient to cover any emergency. Which of 
these can and should be provided for? 

It is not the business of the trade school to 
train the general consumer in the artistic appreci- 
ation necessary for intelligent consumption, — 
that is, for the purchase and use of such articles 
as pictures, clothing, furniture, carpets, and 
other furnishings of like nature, — except as an 
incidental education that must come along with 
preparation for vocational efficiency. Such train- 
ing as a major part of the work belongs to prac- 
tical arts courses in general education, in pub- 
lic schools, in art schools, and in the various 
institutes. 

With a clear understanding of the foregoing 
principles and a careful investigation of each 
trade or occupation to determine its exact oppor- 
tunities and requirements, the place of art in 
industry should be readily determined for each 
course of study projected. 

Unorganized or Low-skilled Trades 

We shall next consider an industry that has not 
sufficient outlook in advanced processes to war- 
rant an extended training in part-time or evening 

113 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

classes, but in which limited but rather prompt 
advancement can be expected through training 
in short-unit courses. We may again refer to 
paper-box making, fifteen per cent of which is 
too difficult to be picked up on the shop floor; to 
special hand laundry work, machine-tending, of 
a somewhat advanced type, such as paper-cut- 
ting and folding apparatus, which must be ad- 
justed for each job, and the more advanced units 
of such highly specialized industries as shoe- 
making and automobile manufacturing. 

Short-unit courses 

The short-unit course has been devised espe- 
cially to meet these conditions. It is provided to 
meet the needs of people who want only a limited 
amount of instruction, who must have immediate 
help, and who are not as a rule expected to con- 
tinue a long and systematic course of instruction 
for high-skilled positions. The short-unit courses 
should be laid out as a series of distinct problems, 
five or ten at the most, each one complete in itself 
with all its correlated work. The pupil on enter- 
ing should know exactly what his first problem is. 
It should include the ability to do quickly and 
well some one thing needed for a step forward in 
his commercial work. It should not be some par- 

114 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

tial process, fundamental principle, or general 
rule; it should be a specific, concrete job, to be 
done, with or without the ^'why," as the case 
may be. 

Thus, in the paper-box class the lesson might 
hinge upon the figuring-out of the amount of 
stock needed to fill an exact copy of an order 
taken from the books of the company, or it might 
refer to so simple a process as the holding of a 
box and applying the paper jacket where this 
is not done by automatic machinery; the first 
laundry lesson would teach the proper method 
of ironing one garment; a machine-tender would 
be shown the safest and most rapid method of 
setting up and feeding one machine; and so on 
through the entire list. The pupil should go 
away from his first lesson realizing what he has 
learned and wishing he had known it before. 
When the first problem is completed, he should 
have the feeling of having definitely finished one 
useful thing. 

Series of courses 

It is better to have a series of short courses, 
each of five or ten problems, and register for each 
course, than to lay out a long series of lessons 
based upon fundamental processes to be mastered 

115 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Qrst and applied later on. The maker of a short- 
unit course should work like a clipping editor by 
stepping into the industry itself and cutting out 
step after step for his course from the most impor- 
tant of the actual jobs which he finds are neces- 
sary for advancement. 

Training for allied industries 

Let us next take up an industry that in itself 
offers little advancement, but has several allied 
industries that afford rather attractive fields. 
Upholstering and leather-working, drop-forging 
of steel axles, making rubber tires, and painting 
and decorating have been mentioned already as 
offering better fields of advancement than those 
found in the central assembling factory of many 
automobile and carriage firms. 

If one or more of these fields are worthy of reg- 
ular trade training in skill or technical informa- 
tion, we have already covered the ground with 
our discussion of part-time and evening classes. 
If each allied trade, too simple for extended 
training, can be covered by short-unit courses, we 
have again touched upon every phase of this 
work, excepting one, the possibility of grouping 
these allied industries for the purpose of instruc- 
tion, 

ii6 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

Allied groups 

After laying out a definite course in each allied 
trade, compare these courses and determine 
whether there are technical principles and general 
information that form the imderlying basis of a 
group of these trades, and if so, form combined 
classes in these subjects. This is much more 
likely to be true of a series of simple allied trades 
or divisions of work grouped around one central 
industry than it is of a number of separate indus- 
tries not so related. It must not be confused with 
the "common content" idea, which proposes to 
relate a group of diversified, high-skilled trades 
through general principles that underlie the 
group. The relationship here is specific and is 
based upon a comparison of the courses actually 
laid out for each division. There are several dis- 
tinct trades or branches of the industry connected 
with the making of yarn; the same is true of the 
leather industries, of furniture-making, and of 
paper-making. Many of these divisions are sim- 
ple enough for short-unit courses and are really 
allied trades. A fund of general information 
about the central industry runs through each 
allied trade, and general technical principles will 
be found that are necessary to each division. 
,117 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

These should be carefully sifted out and com- 
bined classes formed for their presentation. 

If the same kind and degree of skill are needed, 
but with different applications, give this skill 
first. This would be the case, for instance, in 
bleaching and dyeing. Wherever possible, group 
these allied trades or divisions, give principles 
and manipulation common to the group, and 
specialize afterward in a short-unit course for 
each division. This not only saves time and ex- 
pense, except where there are a large number of 
beginners for every allied trade, but allows a se- 
lection of occupation after some experience, gives 
a firmer foundation, makes it easier to take up 
another trade in case of economic necessity, and 
broadens the scope of a beginner's vision as he 
looks over the industrial field. 

Fitting for a New Occupation 

. When the problem is to take men and women 
who are working in one industry and put them in 
a trade school, in order to fit them for another 
industry that demands adult labor, or offers no 
opportunity for young beginners to enter the in- 
dustry as apprentices or otherwise, the treatment 
is radically different. 



1x8 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

Related to apprentice's work 

There is just a possibility that there may be 
points of likeness and contact between the indus- 
tries in which the children are working and those 
which are demanding adults, but this is very 
unlikely. If such a point of contact can be found 
for any two of the industries, it should be used as 
the connecting link between that which the chil- 
dren are doing and the work they will be expected 
to do, and the course of study in our trade school 
should begin by exemplifying this relationship 
and building upon it as a foundation. The pres- 
ence or absence of such points of contact may 
also be used in determining the advisability of 
attempting to fit for certain industries in the 
State, where the beginners must come from mi- 
nors already employed in other lines of work. 

There is no such thing as a young boy serving 
an apprenticeship as a chauffeur; the trade itself 
is not skilled enough to warrant years of appren- 
ticeship, and the laws in most States and employ- 
ers in all States forbid young boys the opportu- 
nity of learning in actual practice. The chauffeur's 
trade, however, is a very good trade, and a city 
might be justified in taking young men in shops 
and factories, where they are familiar with ma- 

119 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

chinery and the use of tools, and training them, 
in courses of short-unit type, to fill positions as 
chauffeurs. The same city might refuse to train 
grocer's clerks, bookkeepers, and errand boys for 
the chauffeur's trade, on the ground that the 
total lack of connection between their work in and 
out of school would necessitate a much longer and 
more expensive training than the city would be 
justified in giving for so simple a trade. 

Not related to studenfs present work 

In most cases there will be an abrupt line of 
separation between the two lines of work. It 
must now be remembered that the pupils in our 
trade school are to be dependent upon the school 
alone for their success. There will be no coordina- 
tion or cooperation between the school and their 
daily experiences, nor will there be a background 
of skill or technical atmosphere to draw upon 
during instruction. This is a more difiicult case 
than any we have considered before. In the short 
time allotted to evening work, we must give all 
the skill, all the special information, and all the 
atmosphere that is needed for a new trade. The 
curriculum in this case must be absolutely deter- 
mined by the needs of the new job. It must not 
give an unessential thing, and, since time is so 

1 20 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

valuable, it should be planned step by step to 
the very end before the first lesson is given, so 
that if it exceeds the allotted time, it may be re- 
arranged according to the trade value of each di- 
vision. It cannot give technical information and 
leave skill to the daily practice in the shop; it 
cannot give the most essential points in skill and 
leave the little ones to come by practice; it must 
give every detail of skill and technical knowledge 
that it expects to make use of at any time in the 
entire course. It should plan for visits to the in- 
dustry, in small groups, and covering one phase 
at each visit. There should be talks, pictures, 
exhibits given by experts in the industry, to 
produce the right atmosphere and to correct 
any false environment that might exist in the 
old industry which claims their daily labors. The 
instructors here should be experts in the indus- 
try studied. Finally, the time allowed must be 
greater than in previous cases. 

With these restrictions I believe this work can 
be done successfully. 

Woman's Work 

Up to this point the principal emphasis has 
been put upon the work for men, but along with 
this problem of taking men from one industry 

121 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

and fitting them for another comes this much 
broader but much simpler problem of fitting 
women for the home while they are at work in 
some gainful occupation that offers no future. 
Even if it does oft^er a future, the majority of 
these women and girls will at some time be home- 
makers. If they leave productive labor and oc- 
cupy themselves exclusively in the home, this 
becomes their occupation in Hfe and demands a 
fit training; if they remain in industry and also 
keep up a home, as thousands do, there is all the 
more need for the most scientific and concise 
training to provide direct and economical meth- 
ods, short cuts, time-saving appliances, and 
healthful, wholesome, and attractive ideas for 
eating, sleeping, and living. Moreover, the blind- 
alley and short-term occupations are filled with 
women and girls, the shift in personnel of employ- 
ees is kaleidoscopic, and every normal woman has 
some ideal of her own home. This question has 
been written upon and spoken about so con- 
stantly that it will be useless for me to present 
further arguments. 

Home-making 

Training as housewives should be given. It 
should comprise sewing, undergarment making, 

122 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

making of children's clothing, mending and mak- 
ing-over garments, and simple dressmaking. 
Every article should be practical, complete, and 
ready to wear when accepted. Directly corre- 
lated with the above should be enough element- 
ary textiles to determine the nature, quality, and 
reasonable cost of the most common dress goods, 
with simple tests for wool, cotton, linen, etc., and 
enough laundry to give the methods of washing 
different materials and colors; soaps, simple dye- 
ing, and bleaching. 

It should comprise cooking, a purely manipu- 
lative course, telling what to cook and how to 
cook it, the selection of meats and vegetables 
from economic and dietary standpoints, chil- 
dren's foods, some simple invalid dietaries and 
home tests for determining the purity of food- 
stuffs, freshness of eggs, and similar points. 

It should comprise home science: ventilation 
with window boards and cotton screens; care of 
fires; sanitation of sinks, traps, cupboards, etc.; 
some few lessons on common bacteria, with de- 
tection and prevention; lighting, with cost of 
same; personal hygiene; and the science of home 
accounting, with the value of cost-keeping, 
weighing and measuring, and buying in bulk. I 
presume the expert domestic-science teacher will 

123 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

say that much is left out of the above and the 
uninformed will maintain that all this can be 
learned in the home; but to the first I answer 
that these women want definite daily problems 
only, stripped of all theory excepting the simplest 
and that most easily applied; and to the second I 
say, simply, visit their homes, 

Woman^s trade training 

In respect to the regular trade training of 
women to earn a livelihood, I should not wish, 
because of the emphasis previously laid upon 
man's work, to appear unmindful or inapprecia- 
tive of the immediate and growing need for inves- 
tigation into all women-employing industries, as 
such, whether men are also employed or not. 

In the vast department-store industry and 
with all retail firms lies a most promising field. 
Not only are employers willing and anxious to 
cooperate in any school for salesgirls, but the 
minimum-wage law, now coming into operation 
in our States, will make such instruction indis- 
pensable to the girl herself. When the minimum 
wage of a sales position is automatically raised 
from $6 to $9, for instance, the firm will at once 
comply and pay the $9, but they will not pay it 
to a $6 girl. The employee must earn $9, or give 

124 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

way to some one else, perhaps from some other 
city or State, who can earn the minimum allowed 
by law. The $6 girl has only two alternatives, 
increase her earning capacity or get out. The 
demand for trades courses in the art of selling, 
conducted by the community, assisted by the 
mercantile firms, taught by experienced salesmen 
and saleswomen who have also been trained in 
the art of instructing, will be felt immediately 
in every State where the minimum wage is 
adopted. 

The same will be true of like classes in all lines 
of wage-earning occupations for women. 

Training in General Efficiency 

Up to this time we have held ourselves con- 
sistently to a discussion of courses of study inti- 
mately connected with the work which the pupils 
are doing in the trades or with the work of some 
industry into which they are expected to go. A 
great danger lies in the tendency of professional 
teachers to drift away from the immediate issue 
and actual concrete problems because of their 
own training and their own ability to evaluate 
mediate interests. The employee and his em- 
ployer have no such ability, taken in the large, 
and the time and intellectual equipment at the 

125 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

disposal of the trade teacher forbids this ideal 
method of treatment. 

This does not mean, however, that we are to 
make human machines of our pupils. There are 
many other things that can be given besides skill 
and technical knowledge which will be a distinct 
benefit to the young worker in his trade. Thus, 
his own physical condition is of the utmost im- 
portance, as are the habits that improve or re- 
tard it. 

Accuracy, care, forethought, method, and the 
habit of thinking about his work, the work of 
others, and possible improvements are indispen- 
sable to a mechanic's preferment; but a preach- 
ment on alcohol, a course in ethics, and training 
in the psychological processes of thought will 
accomplish nothing. These subjects are not to be 
v/ritten into the course of study of the pupil, but 
into that of his teacher. They are to be absorbed, 
to be acquired as habits are acquired by imita- 
tion and the influence of environment set up by 
his instructor. You cannot teach cleanliness to a 
group of boys when their instructor is spitting 
tobacco juice into a sawdust pile, or exhort them 
into systematic methods when they are searching 
all over the shop or tool room to find some mis- 
placed tool or piece of stock. These things, to- 

126 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

gether with thoughtfulness for fellow workmen, 
duties to one's employer as regards wasted time 
or material, and the other personal traits that 
make a man popular with his fellows and valu- 
able to his superiors, must be soaked in, daily, 
almost unconsciously, because of the persistent 
forethought and example of the instructor, and 
because the pupil, in following this example and 
actually putting its principles into practice, 
makes them a component part of his shop experi- 
ence rather than of his course of instruction. 

General education in trade schools 

And now arises the oft-mooted question. Shall 
we teach some general education in our industrial 
schools? 

So far as I can see, this question resolves itself 
into a simple analysis of the needs of the minors 
under consideration and into the question of 
whose business it is to supply these needs. The 
all-day industrial school, as indicated before, 
either completes the general education or builds 
upon it and extends it to provide the means of ad- 
vanced training. It must give general education, 
of course, and, wherever it draws public funds, it 
should be compelled to train for citizenship. 

For the part-time school, the evening classes, 
127 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

and short-unit courses, the first matter to be con- 
sidered is, Are they supported by public funds? 
If they are not supported by public funds, the 
question of general education must be left to the 
authorities conducting the school. If they are 
wholly or in part supported by the public, then 
the public has a right to demand that training 
for good citizenship be given in all these classes; 
but in my judgment it is inadvisable, from a 
practical standpoint, ever to enforce this right in 
the case of short-unit courses; and it is foolish 
to force it upon the other classes until a careful 
investigation has shown that proper training in 
this subject has not been given and cannot be 
given in the public schools. 

Civic training 

By civic training in this instance is meant 
specific classroom instruction in the duties of 
citizenship, not the thousand and one little side- 
lights on good citizenship that are intimately 
connected with industrial life and may be em- 
phasized by a good shop teacher many times in 
the course of a year. Unquestionably the appren- 
tice should be trained in citizenship; but it may 
be better for the State to improve this training 
in the common schools and restrict the entrance 

128 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

into publicly supported part-time and evening 
schools until after such training has been received. 

Formal civic training may be impossible at the 
early age at which the apprentices leave the com- 
mon school; it may be impossible to interest 
them in civic ideas divorced from their industrial 
ideas, but if it is possible to give it in connection 
with the general education, it is much better 
there than as a part of the industrial course. Our 
experience has shown that the apprentices, in 
evening classes, at least, have no more interest 
in civic training and are no more adapted to it 
than the children of the upper grammar grades. 
The burden of proof should rest with those who 
desire to add civic training to the industrial 
course. 

' At all events, no training of a general nature, 
civic or otherwise, unless it is absolutely needed 
for the trade work, should be given in time paid 
for by the employer unless he consents to the 
same. When he pays the taxes of his local schools, 
he is providing his share of the expense of the 
general educational training of the community. 

This will not operate as a hindrance in case of 
the half-time system and such cooperative sys- 
tems, where the employer agrees to pay a certain 
fixed wage for the pupil's entire time, half to be 

129 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

spent in his shop and half in the school. The wage 
scale is fixed according to the specific agreement, 
and the success of the plan requires an entire 
agreement between the school and the employ- 
ers, not only regarding the courses to be given in 
the school, but also regarding the jobs to be given 
in the shops. 

The particular danger lies in empowering a 
community to take apprentices out of a shop or 
factory for certain hours a week, compelling the 
employer to pay the same wage as before, and 
then using this time for general education or civic 
training. Such a course, although justified where 
the training given on the employer's time is 
strictly trade training which the apprentice needs 
for advancement and is not getting in the shop, 
cannot be justified where the training is not re- 
lated to his shop work and consequently does 
not ofifer his employer any return for the time he 
is compelled to pay for. If the employer agrees, 
there can be no legal objection. 

Regarding general education other than civic, 
every State should have a minimum general edu- 
cation without which no normal child should be 
permitted to leave the public school except under 
special provision for continuation work. Where 
the pupils of an industrial part-time and evening 

130 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

school can be shown to have passed this mini- 
mum educational requirement, the public should 
not have authority to force general education in 
these schools. Where the pupils have not com- 
pleted this minimum requirement, the school 
would be a continuation school and would be 
compelled to offer general work enough to com- 
plete the minimum course. Short-unit courses 
should never be continuation courses, but they 
might be included as a distinct unit in the work 
of a continuation school. 

General education needed for industrial 

efficiency 

Nothing in the above should be construed to 
indicate that industrial school authorities are not 
to be permitted to offer general education when- 
ever such courses are deemed advisable for the 
advancement of their pupils in the industry. 
Under such circumstances the authorities must 
again investigate the industry in the training for 
which they propose to include this general edu- 
cation. 

What is the average schooling of the beginner 
now going into the industry? Is the industrial 
progress hampered most by lack of trade train- 
ing, lack of brains, or lack of general education? 

131 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

Recall again the car-heating engineer, who stated 
that his beginners were hampered very largely 
for lack of general training, and not for want of 
specific trade instruction. Would this general 
training have been given in the public schools or 
was there sufficient schooling and too little appli- 
cation? Is more common schooling needed? How 
much more? Can it be given better before en- 
tering the trade or after entrance, when it comes 
along with the practical application? The inves- 
tigator here must be careful to distinguish be- 
tween an apparent and a real need for more gen- 
eral education. Apprentices often appear lacking 
in common-school subjects when in fact they are 
lacking in the ability to apply what they know in 
those subjects to the concrete problems at hand. 
They appear to lack general education; what they 
really need is specific and special courses training 
them to use what they already know. It is doubt- 
ful, for instance, if short courses in plane geom- 
etry, solid geometry, elementary physics, etc., 
given in the usual way, would be of much service 
in assisting an apprentice to figure out the cutting 
speed on a lathe, the amount of material wasted, 
or the weight of a casting made from a pattern, 
although these results depend upon principles in 
the subjects named. A thorough sixth-grade 

132 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

course in denominate numbers would supply all 
the general education really needed, — not all 
that would be desirable, but all that would be 
absolutely essential; and the rest is to be specific 
application to concrete problems. 

If the general schooling needed is considerably 
above the minimum requirement of the State, 
would it pay these beginners to enter a regular 
school and obtain it there? What is the average 
education of the students in the trade class? What 
are their financial conditions? The answers to 
these questions, and similar ones that will sug- 
gest themselves, should determine in the minds of 
the trade-school authorities how much or how 
little general education to include in the work. 
Wherever possible, general schooling should be 
approached through its practical adaptation to 
the trade and not as a disjuncted subject. As has 
been so ably pointed out by Professor Richards, 
where little skill and little or no technical knowl- 
edge are required by any line of employment that 
offers fair places as a return for experience alone, 
it usually indicates the need of general continua- 
tion school instruction rather than trade train- 
ing; and where skill and technical knowledge are 
requisite to advancement, it usually indicates 
the need of special training following all the 

133 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

general schooling required to profit by such 
training. 

Moral and recreational subjects 

It remains only to say a few words regarding 
one type of general education that will prove of 
tremendous value to a State or Nation in promot- 
ing the happiness and welfare of its people. The 
industrial revolution of the last thirty years, with 
its increasing subdivision of labor, its multiplica- 
tion of processes, and the invention of semi- and 
wholly automatic machinery, has brought forth 
hundreds of thousands of jobs that not only are 
entirely lacking in all stimulus to physical and 
mental growth, but are actually deadening to 
mind and body by their monotony. Whenever 
States, cities, corporations, or citizens can do any- 
thing to alleviate this condition, they are morally 
bound to do it. Reading courses, music and 
applied art, lectures, entertainments, the public 
schools open in the evenings for concerts and 
dancing, athletics, gymnasium work, playgrounds 
and recreation-center classes, anything that will 
prove successful in a community, meet the ap- 
proval of its people, and offer relief from that 
monotony of existence which is driving men to 
the saloons and gambling-tables and women 

134 



SELECTING THE COURSE 

to the dance-halls and cafes, should be pro- 
vided. 

But we must temper our sentiment with sense; 
we must see clearly just what end these courses 
are to achieve, and, working for that end, divorce 
them from all pretense of industrial and trade 
training, all relation to our practical instruction 
for shop and factory, — the one having to do 
with the hours of labor and the other with the 
hours of leisure. 

As there is a time for work and a time for play, 
so there is a time for work training and a time for 
instruction in the wise use of leisure; but in nei- 
ther case will it prove successful to attempt both 
lines at the same time. 



IV 

SELECTING THE TEACHER 

The Importance of the Teacher 

The longer I live and the more I come in contact 
with teachers and pupils in every type of school, 
both in this country and in Europe, the more I 
appreciate the value of the teacher as the one in- 
dispensable factor in any system of education. It 
is to me a matter of both wonder and regret, when 
I am shown over some magnificent building, ex- 
pensively furnished, the heating, lighting, and 
ventilation in charge of a licensed engineer, mag- 
nificent machinery and shop equipment compris- 
ing every possible type of tool and machine, and 
then find the instruction being given by mechan- 
ics who have never had even an elementary course 
in the mechanics of teaching, never made out a 
practical course of study, never prepared a 
month's work in advance, and are unable to keep 
even moderately good order in their classes. Or, 
still worse, to find some underpaid and over- 
worked regular school teacher, who has had a six 
weeks' summer course in preparation for indus- 

136 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

trial work or has taken a manual- training course 
two hours a week for the year, put over industrial 
or apprenticeship classes that require mechanical 
skill, shop knowledge, an appreciation of indus^ 
try from the inside, and experience as a worker 
in the trade under instruction. 

The standard 

Let us first set standards for our various teach- 
ers, find what it will cost to hire teachers that 
reach these standards or as nearly reach them as 
can any one to be procured for that work, set 
aside this cost, and then use what remains of our 
appropriation to provide the place and the equip- 
ment. Nine times out of ten a $2500 teacher with 
an $800 equipment will turn out superior work 
to that of an $800 teacher with a $2500 equip- 
ment. The former will find a way to provide the 
tools in some shop or factory, but the latter cannot 
find a way to provide additional personality and 
mental power. 

The first step in selection 

First of all, then, what sort of teachers do we 
need, where are they to be found? If we must 
train them, how and by whom shall it be done? 

137 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

The Experience of Germany 

I will refer you first to the experience of Ger- 
many in regard to the sort of teachers that have 
proved most successful. 

Directors 

There are ten directors in the ten evening trade 
schools of Hamburg held in public school build- 
ings; five of them are principals of the same build- 
ings in the daytime, three hold advanced licenses 
as instructors in higher schools, while two are 
teachers in the common schools. Of the four day 
trade schools housed in one main building given 
up exclusively to trade instruction, not one has a 
director who is primarily a school man; all have 
directors who are engineers, experts in the trades 
taught, but especially trained for directing school 
activities. The trade schools run under the direc- 
tions of trade unions all have tradesmen as di- 
rectors. The work of the day school is distinctly 
higher in type than the work of the night schools. 

It would appear, then, that for the higher and 
more technical day school an engineer or expert 
tradesman is selected as director and is obliged 
to take training in school direction, whereas for 
the less technical night-school work, a school 

138 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

principal or teacher is preferred. It is to be re- 
membered that all these evening schools are 
under the direction of one inspector, who is a 
rather high type of educator and business organ- 
izer, and who is in no way connected with the 
common-school system of the city. The manage- 
ment of the system is separated from that of the 
common-school system, but the direction of each 
evening school is placed in the hands of a regular 
teacher responsible to this special trade-school 
inspector. 

Teachers 

Of the 223 teachers employed in the ten eve- 
ning schools, 45 are tradesmen, 5 rectors of day 
schools, 9 teachers in high schools, and 164 are 
common-school teachers. Thus, in the evening 
school, where nearly all theory is taught, the prac- 
tical work being done in the commercial shops 
during the day, 178 school teachers are employed 
as against 45 tradesmen. Of these 178 school 
teachers, only 3 are giving any work in the nature 
of shop instruction, while of the 45 mechanics, 7 
are engaged in classes of pure theory and 38 in 
shop work or on shop problems. 

In general we may say that in all these trade 
schools the professional teacher is employed to 

139 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

impart theory and as far as possible for elemen- 
tary technical work, the actual shop instruction, 
the advanced technical work, and certain classes 
in advanced theory being left to the mechanic. In 
every instance, however, the professional teacher 
has taken a course in practical training for the 
trade he is to teach and the tradesman has fin- 
ished a course in pedagogy. In no case has the 
mechanic stepped directly from his shop, or the 
teacher from his classroom, into the trade school 
without special preparation. 

Summary 

Looking back over these statements they may 
be summed up as follows: Where the facility in 
imparting information and the preservation of 
interest and discipline are most important and 
the technical knowledge is simple enough to be 
acquired by study, the professional teacher is 
selected; where the skill, knowledge of the trade, 
and technical information are more important 
than the method of presenting them, the mechanic 
is selected. 



140 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

Training for the American Teacher 

Principles of teaching 

First and foremost in the American trade 
school we must require of every teacher a train- 
ing in the mechanics of teaching. This may be 
anything from a carefully planned course in some 
educational institution to frequent short talks 
between a rural-school superintendent or princi- 
pal and his one industrial teacher concerning the 
outlining of a course, the instruction by demon- 
stration and individual help, proper methods of 
examination, and the principles of discipline. It 
should not be a study of formal pedagogy, but 
a study of practical trade teaching; and no one 
should be permitted to teach without it. 

Trade knowledge 

Secondly, we must demand a rather intimate 
knowledge of the trade to be taught, whether 
gained through actual experience as a worker in 
the trade or through special training in the prin- 
ciples of the trade given in specially organized 
courses for that purpose. Thus the trade worker 
would present his experience as a mechanic and 
his training in the principles of teaching before 
being employed as a shop instructor or teacher of 

141 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the higher classes in technical knowledge. The 
professional teacher would present evidence of 
special training in courses given for apprentices in 
the trade, or in special courses fitting teachers to 
instruct in this trade, and also from visits, study, 
and, if possible, some weeks' actual work in the 
trade, before he is hired to teach the classroom 
work and elementary theory of that industry. 
Under such an arrangement the drawing and 
shop mathematics of the mechanic and building 
trades, the chemistry of textiles, dyeing and 
bleaching, the composition and spelling of the 
printing trade might be given by these profes- 
sional teachers; the shop practice, design and 
final estimating, the advanced processes of the 
textile industry, and the actual designing and 
printing being left to expert tradesmen. 

My own experience has shown that there are 
more school men who can acquire the elementary 
trade principles than there are mechanics who can 
become proficient in the art of teaching; also, that 
it is easier to teach the school man than the me- 
chanic. It has also proved that in many cases the 
school man with some trade training gives better 
satisfaction in the classroom not in the shop than 
the mechanic with some pedagogy; but wherever 
I have found a mechanic who did master the 

142 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

principles of teaching he has proved to be the 
most valuable man in the entire group. 

The community's part 

For this reason a State or community that pro- 
poses to offer trade instruction should provide 
opportunity for its tradesmen to receive training 
in the art of teaching and should seek diligently 
for those who prove to be natural instructors; 
and it should provide at the same time classes, 
visits, excursions, lectures, and short terms of 
practical work in various trades, where the com- 
mon-school teachers may acquire sufficient tech- 
nical knowledge to do the elementary classroom 
work of the trades. 

The danger is, however, that for financial or 
other reasons the community will seek to employ 
these professional teachers in giving the actual 
trade training. In such cases the element of at- 
mosphere, and all that it stands for, is lacking. 
It is like a picture or a play; it only represents 
real life. Even though the professional teacher 
has gone into the industry and learned it, if he 
was a teacher when he did so he never got the 
viewpoint of the apprentice and journeyman who 
lived in that trade, by that trade, and never ex- 
pected to work in any other trade. Let the school 

143 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

man give such related classroom work as he can 
do best; but place the high-grade mechanic or 
trade worker in charge of all work that must be 
an exact duplicate of the work done commer- 
cially. I have seen a school teacher train a class 
in the names of various cuts of meat, their ap- 
pearance, cost, food-value, waste, etc., and do it 
more successfully than any butcher in the city 
could have done it; but I never yet saw a school 
teacher who could pick up a knife and equal a 
butcher in instructing that class how to cut up a 
carcass. 

Details of a Teachers' Training Course 
FOR THE Mechanic 

How shall the State provide these various 
opportunities for training? 

Mechanics of teaching 

The easiest to provide from the point of equip- 
ment and the most difficult from all other stand- 
points is the mechanics training in pedagogy. 
Any public-school building will serve as the 
place; the work should be given in the evening 
during the winter months and should require not 
less than eighty to one hundred evenings of actual 
attendance. We have found it satisfactory to run 

144 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

twenty-five weeks, two evenings per week, turning 
out a class every other spring, but this is largely 
a matter for decision in each individual case. 

The class of mechanics should be restricted in 
number and very carefully selected. Each appli- 
cant should bring a record of his service as ap- 
prentice and journeyman, a recommendation in 
writing from his present employer, and should 
make application in person to the man directing 
the work. Those who for any reason are deemed 
unfit to enter the class should be rejected. Into 
this question enters a consideration of personal 
appearance and manner, conversational ability, 
hopes and ambitions and reasons for entering the 
class, age, experience, and any other points that 
indicate the probability of success or failure. The 
most promising applicants up to the limited num- 
ber prescribed should be selected, and if there still 
remain some, not undesirable candidates, a few of 
them should be held as alternates. 

From this it can be seen that the man in charge 
of the organization of this class must be an ex- 
pert. He should understand men, be familiar 
with the principles of teaching, have a general 
knowledge of the trades to be covered, and under- 
stand thoroughly the running of a trade school. 
Preferably he should be the principal of a trade or 

145 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

vocational school, a director of industrial work in 
city schools, or at least a teacher of long experi- 
ence in industrial or trade teaching. He must 
understand what type of mechanics make the 
best trade teachers and how to select that type. 

Probation period 

Having selected the class, a probation period of 
two or three weeks should be allowed for volun- 
tary or compulsory dropping out and replacing 
from the alternate list. After this period expires, 
the regular registration should be made and a 
substantial financial fee collected from each man 
or woman, the same to be retained or returned 
under certain attendance restrictions as decided 
upon by the authorities in charge. Experience 
has shown that people value most what they are 
willing to pay for, and the most valuable people 
are always willing to pay. This is simply our final 
sift in the sifting process. We are now prepared 
to discuss what these mechanics shall be taught. 

Since the mechanics of teaching is the one sub- 
ject required of all and the one which by its na- 
ture admits of presentation to mixed groups of 
trade workers, I am including a suggestive out- 
line giving in a concrete way what this subject 
ought to cover. 

146 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

Outline of work 

With but slight variation the following plan 
can be adapted to training teachers for a large 
variety of trade work: — 

1. Industrial education. 

What it means. 
Why it has arisen. 
Present needs. 
Future possibilities. 

2. Industrial schools. 

Various kinds — name, nature, aim, and 

province of each. 
Comparison with manual training. 

3. Value of an outline. 

First sketch. 

Rearrangement in specific order. 

4. Course of study. 

Relation to equipment. 
Definite aim. 

How much skill? 

What processes? Jobs? 

Allied subjects. 

5. Special points on adapting outlines to trade work, 

6. Equipment. 

Relation to work planned. 
Bids — specifications. 
Firms — general cost. 
Arrangement in shop or work room. 
Individual or general tools. 

147 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

7. The shop exercise. 

Definite idea. 
Previous preparation. 
Readiness of tools and materials. 
Clear instruction. 
Demonstration or individual work. 

8. Recitation and examination. 

Proper questioning. 

Trade standards for judgment. 

Trade terms. 

Interest — memory — judgment. 

Rating shop work and exercises. 

The practical examination marking. 

Self-checking for the teachers. 

9. Discipline. 

Direct — disorder, loafing, absence, tardiness. 
Shop ideals and class spirit. 
Indirect — system (tool room, stock room). 
Self control (between students). 
Value of time and material. 
Work ideals — social justice. 
10. Records. 

Efl5ciency cards — general cards. 

Judging students. 
Time cards and job tickets. 
Want book — efficiency records of tools and 

materials. 
BUls. 



148 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

11. Materials and products. 

Purchase: In bulk? 

As needed? 
Disposal. 

Selling product. 

Giving to student. 

Building for school or system. 

Contract work. 

Student compensation. 

12. Place of industries in modern education. 

13. Relation of trade unions to trade education. 

14. Health — industrial hygiene and safety. 

15. State laws — rules — regulations and financial 
assistance. 

16. Differences between trade and industrial in- 
struction on one hand and regular school teach- 
ing on the other hand. 

Economic — social. 
Individual — discipline. 
Age — environment. 
Earning capacity — scholarship. 

Method of preparing the outline 

In preparing an outline of this kind, if there are 
already successful schools established in the 
industries for which these people are training, 
find out what the directors of those schools con- 
sider most important for their instructors to 
know, what mistakes and weaknesses are most 

\M9 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

common among beginning teachers, and such 
practical first-hand information, and then pro- 
vide in your course for discussions of these points. 
I use the word ^' discussions" advisedly. These 
practical people cannot at first enter intelli- 
gently into a discussion of the matter contained 
in this outline. Some considerable time must be 
devoted by their teacher to talks and comments, 
largely by himself alone. References to books, 
pamphlets, magazines, bulletins, etc., should be 
carefully selected and assigned to prepare a back- 
ground for discussion. The more important top- 
ics should be run through and commented upon, 
and as soon as the class has a fund of information 
from which to draw discussion, this method 
should be adopted. The instructor in mechanics 
of teaching should be the director of the industrial 
work or present credentials of efficiency equal to 
those mentioned for the one selecting the class. 

Drawing, mathematics, and other subjects 

If the trades included in this training class for 
teachers are the regular manufacturing and build- 
ing trades dependent upon drawing and applied 
mathematics, these subjects should be required 
of every man who cannot show evidence of pro- 
ficiency in rapidly applying them to the work of 

ISO 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

his trade. The relationship between the drawing, 
mathematics, and the shop work should be em- 
phasized. Where drawing and mathematics do 
not enter into the trades, but elementary chem- 
istry, geology, metallurgy, or some other science 
does, that science should be required under the 
same conditions as given for drawing. Four years 
of experience in training mechanics for industrial 
teaching has shown us the necessity and impor- 
tance of providing for a considerable amount of 
additional training in drawing, mathematics, and 
science, all three bearing directly upon the trades 
work. We have been unable to depend upon the 
previous knowledge regarding these subjects of 
even our highest-grade mechanics, although in 
some cases it was necessary only to review work 
which they had once had to reorganize it under 
fundamental principles so as to apply it intelli- 
gently to trade teaching. To be able to use ap- 
plied mathematics in a shop and to be able to 
explain the how and the why of this use to an 
apprentice are very dijSerent things, so our 
mechanics find. 

Shop practice 

The actual shop practice of these prospective 
teachers should be divided into two parts — 

151 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

(i) training in any process of the industry, any 
machines in the industry, or any work in their 
particular branch of industry in which they are 
not already proficient; and (2) practice teaching. 
We have had high-skilled machinists, drawing 
from $1300 to $1450 a year, who knew practically 
nothing about the universal milling machine or 
the universal grinder. Pattern-makers, who had 
worked so many years in one factory that they 
were doubtful regarding the best methods of con- 
structing patterns of an entirely different nature, 
have also registered in the class. It has been 
found advisable to provide some opportunity for 
additional shop work for these men, although it 
has never needed to be extensive and has usually 
been but a small part of the entire training. The 
men themselves are depended upon to suggest 
during conferences the nature of the shop work 
in which they are weak and for which they feel a 
need of supplementary training. 

Practice teaching 

The practice teaching is absolutely essential to 
the proper training of the mechanic for school 
positions. It should be given under conditions as 
nearly as possible like those the mechanic will 
meet in his first school job. It should be super- 

152 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

vised, discussed, subjected to all the tests of dis- 
cipline and system that occur in the regular trade 
school, and must be given to fair-sized groups of 
young men or women actually at work in the 
trade. The latter may be provided by forming 
classes of apprentices under the direction of reg- 
ular instructors, and detailing the men or women 
from the teachers' class to instruct these ap- 
prentices for a certain number of nights under 
supervision. After the close of the first series of 
practice lessons, a short time may well intervene 
for discussions, visits to other classes, and prepa- 
ration for further teaching, after which the pro- 
spective teacher is again placed in charge of a 
class and given more responsibility and authority. 

Where the community has not the mill, fac- 
tory, or shop equipment to carry on this work, an 
arrangement can nearly always be made with a 
technical high school, college, factory, shop, or 
mill, that has the desired equipment, for use of 
the same outside of regular working hours, and 
subject to the supervision of some employee of 
the firm who is compensated by the community. 
The rental in such case is often less than the in- 
terest on such an equipment as the municipality 
would need to provide. 

By varying these suggestions to meet the local 

^52 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

needs and by selecting trades which are promi- 
nent in the community and which can be prop- 
erly provided for both in equipment and number 
of apprentice classes, any locality can offer a 
very satisfactory opportunity for its mechanical 
experts to acquire proficiency as teachers. 

Training the Professional Teacher in 
Trade Subjects 

In order to train the professional school teacher 
to handle trade subjects a more elaborate system 
of equipment is necessary, but the actual instruc- 
tion is more easily provided. 

Theory 

So far as theory is concerned, these teachers 
need only the general principles underlying trade 
education. This may be given them in a series of 
lectures and discussions conducted in a classroom 
by the director or head teacher in the industrial 
system, but this is to be recommended only where 
there are no schools in operation. Where there 
are evening trade schools, the entire group of 
teachers registered should be taken by the direc- 
tor on a series of visits to the various schools. 
The work in each school or class should be ex- 
plained, the aims, results, and methods used to 

IS4 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

attain these results, the peculiar problems and 
difficulties of each trade teacher, discipline, and 
all such matters that go to make successful trade 
instruction should be pointed out and made note 
of. These should later be discussed and examined, 
and the members of the class should furnish proof 
to the instructor that they have obtained the 
proper point of view. 

Trade principles and skill 

These teachers must also be given an elemen- 
tary but thorough training in the principles of 
the trade, the classroom work of which they are 
to teach. It is not sufficient for them to know this 
classroom work itself, but they must also know 
something of the hand work that goes with it, the 
shop conditions, the gradations of work as ap- 
prentices advance, if they are to obtain the best 
results in their teaching. 

The actual classroom work may be given them 
by some instructor at that time engaged in doing 
that work, or by some experienced trade teacher 
who has studied out and prepared a proper 
course of study which will form a basis for a 
beginning. The drawing, mathematics, science, 
English, business practice and system, civic 
training, and all such allied work can always be 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

arranged for without difficulty. Competent men 
in the trade can be found to instruct the teachers' 
class in these matters, and only men in the trade 
itself should be selected for this work. It is im- 
portant that these teachers get the work entirely 
from the tradesman's standpoint, and that it 
shall relate immediately and always to the prac- 
tical use in the trade; the method and felicity of 
imparting the knowledge in these cases is of sec- 
ondary importance. The class brings these latter 
qualities from its professional work. 

That part of the classroom teacher's training 
that depends on pure skill can be given in any 
shop or workroom containing the requisite appa- 
ratus; therefore, if there are any educational in- 
stitutions, public or private, in the vicinity, that 
possess such an equipment, arrangements should 
be made to give this training in skill in the regular 
classes of that school, or to use its equipment and 
possibly its instructors or director in special eve- 
ning instruction. 

If the equipment is inexpensive, or one that is 
portable and not likely to be injured, it may often 
be borrowed from some industrial concern, used 
for a certain number of weeks, and then returned 
to the owners. Such equipments as samples of 
wools, cloths, leather, patterns, designs, and 

iS6 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

innumerable others that any one can suggest, are 
readily borrowed for use in evening-school in- 
struction. Where the equipment will serve for 
many classes and be a permanent asset, it can be 
purchased; but this is inadvisable in industries 
with a constantly changing product. 

Industrial appreciation 

Even more important than the training in skill 
is the training in industrial appreciation, which is 
acquired only through contact with the industry 
itself. The community may provide for this 
training in three different ways. 

The simplest and least expensive is to arrange, 
with the different industrial concerns whose work 
is to be taught, for the entrance, as actual begin- 
ners in the industry during the summer vacation, 
of such regular school teachers as desire to equip 
themselves for teaching the classroom work of 
that particular trade. The compensation will be 
that regularly allowed for beginners, supple- 
mented or not by the community as may be de- 
cided upon. This method has the advantage of 
allowing a large number of people to obtain this 
experience. 

The second method is to arrange for work on 
Saturdays and such fixed holidays as are allowed 

157 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

the schools and not the shops, during the entire 
time the schools are in session. This is much 
more difficult to arrange because of the intermit- 
tence of employment, half-holidays, and general 
attitude of employers to consider it a nuisance. 
The teachers, however, work without compensa- 
tion as a rule, which aids in securing the job. It is 
often possible to arrange so that the work of a 
school teacher will come entirely in the forenoon, 
and the afternoons, or some of them, can be 
devoted to shop work. 

The third, best, and most expensive plan is for 
the community to select, from those completing 
the work of the teachers' class, one or two of the 
most promising and arrange for them to spend 
the next half-year in the industry, drawing the 
same salaries they receive when teaching, less the 
amount earned in the shop. These men or women 
would then become the supervisors of the class- 
room work done by those who were trained as 
suggested in the first or second way and would 
also teach in the trade classes in the evening. 
They would form the selected group from which 
to pick teachers for all-day schools and for part- 
time instruction in trade work. 

Under this arrangement a city might, for in- 
stance, have a group of fifty or sixty public- 

158 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

school teachers taking the work in trade-teaching 
methods, visits to classes, etc. This would be 
divided into several smaller groups studying the 
drawing, mathematics, chemistry, English, and 
other allied subjects decided upon as necessary 
for the beginning apprentice, the work being 
given in a classroom by an expert. These same 
groups, some of them combined when possible, 
would be taken into some shop or work room and 
given the elementary principles and skill of the 
trade itself, and from time to time certain mem- 
bers would be relieved from their other work and 
detailed to give class instruction to groups of 
apprentices formed from the various trades. At 
the close of the course, these second groups of 
teachers would be again divided into classes of 
strictly one trade or part of a trade and then 
assigned for summer work in the industries. At 
the close of the summer, two or three picked men, 
selected for their efficiency in teaching classroom 
subjects and for their work in the trade, would 
be continued in the commercial shops or fac- 
tories at the expense of the community. 

The whole remaining list of satisfactory gradu- 
ates would then be made up into an eligible list, 
from which the director of evening trades schools 
would select his classroom teachers. From those 

159 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

who obtained satisfactory experience in this 
work, and also from the specially selected two or 
three previously chosen, the day trade schools 
would select their classroom instructors. Any 
city that follows this plan, modified to meet its 
conditions, will secure good trade-school instruc- 
tion. 

It will be contended that the expense of this 
training will be considerable, but it will not ex- 
ceed the expense now met without complaint in 
supporting our normal schools, training schools, 
training classes, and educational departments in 
State universities, whose purpose it is to turn out 
capable teachers for the public schools. 

Trade training will never reach a very high 
degree of efficiency so long as mechanics, neither 
trained nor specially selected, are chosen as our 
instructors; public-school teachers, unfamiliar 
with trade conditions, have charge of our class- 
rooms, and political appointees have direction of 
the community's industrial educational system. 

Conclusion 

In the foregoing pages an effort has been made 
to point out first of all a general line of study to 
be applied to the various industrial activities of a 
State in order to determine whether or not pub- 

i6o 



SELECTING THE TEACHER 

licly supported trade education should be given. 
Where an affirmative answer resulted from the 
above, suggestions were given regarding the na- 
ture and types of trade training to be established. 
General rules for determining the courses of 
study were presented, and in some cases more de- 
tailed suggestions were given as concrete exam- 
ples of what such courses should be like. Lastly, 
the selection and training of teachers for these 
trade schools was treated as fully as it is practi- 
cable to handle a subject that must needs be 
modified continually to meet local necessities. 

It is perfectly well known to the author that 
all this is suggestive rather than final, and that 
many minor and concrete branches of the subject 
have been merely touched upon or omitted alto- 
gether; but it is beheved that what has been said 
is entirely sufiicient to form a working basis for 
any community to start with. So far as the de- 
tails of education are concerned, the results of 
experience in each community are the only safe 
milestones of advancement. 

Without a doubt these schools will be a perma- 
nent and ever-increasing benefit to the children 
of industry. They will be a benefit to the em- 
ployer and to every citizen who hires the services 
or purchases the output of skilled mechanics. It 
i6i 



ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

still remains to be determined just how great the 
advantage is to the employer, in order to arrive 
at an equable proportion of the paid working 
time that may be demanded for trade instruction. 

It will also be interesting to observe whether 
they advance the interests of the trade unions or 
not. If the unions continue to work for quantity 
of numbers, irrespective of skill, it is doubtful if 
the industrial schools will have other than Httle 
effect on their strength. If, however, the unions 
seek to increase their influence through the ex- 
cellence of their membership and the quality of 
work the union members are able to produce, 
these industrial schools will prove a powerful 
factor in advancing the reputation of the unions. 

We are not, however, concerned directly with 
these problems, but indirectly with all of them. 
We are concerned in working out some common 
ground of mutual advantage, so definite and 
plain that the State, the employer, and the union 
will join hands for a common cause, the uplifting 
of the children of labor, and through them, of 
labor itself. 



OUTLINE 

I. SELECTING THE SCHOOL 

Our present footing i 

a. Need for facts 2 

b. Study the industries 3 

c. What industries to study 4 

What to study about an industry 5 

a. The work place 5 

b. Hygienic nature of the work 5 

c. Moral and social conditions 6 

d. Standing of the industry with its workers. . . 6 

e. The wage factor 7 

/. Local standing 7 

g. Interpreting the above 8 

Child-employing industries 8 

a. What are they? 8 

b. Children employed — number and age 9 

c. Are numbers excessive? 9 

d. The age problem 10 

e. Length of employment 12 

Opportunity in the trade 14 

a. Are skilled processes ahead? 15 

b. Other training possible 16 

c. Fitting the apprentice for advancement 16 

d. If not advanced, why not? 19 

e. Apprentice vs, adult 21 

/. Employer creates a ** blind alley" 21 

163 



OUTLINE 

5. Shall we train inside or outside the shop? 21 

a. Training within the industry 22 

b. Large number advanced 23 

c. Large advance but slow 24 

d. Small number highly skilled 25 

e. Apprentice mortality 27 

/. The nature of the work 29 

g. Can we give skill alone? 30 

h. Must skill be given outside?.' 30 

i. Is general knowledge required? 31 

6. Training for foremanship 32 

7. The allied industries 36 

8. Industries for adult beginners 38 

9. Vocational guidance 40 

II. MAKING THE SURVEY 

1. Two aspects of the survey 43 

2. The industrial survey 45 

a. The survey material 46 

b. Classification of all occupations 48 

c. Occupations not to be considered 48 

d. Groups that will be studied 49 

e. Subdivisions under general occupations 49 

/. Industries in the manufacturing and mechani- 
cal group that will not be studied 50 

g. Industries in the manufacturing and mechani- 
cal group that will be studied 52 

h. Domestic and personal service 54 

i. Instructions for field workers 55 

j. Memorandum ^ 55 

164 



„ OUTLINE 

k. Departmental chart ^ 57 

/. Suggestions bearing on the departmental 

chart 58 

tn. Further instructions for field workers 59 

n. Materials and aids 59 

0. Use of cards for field notes 62 

p. Conferences with representatives of other 

establishments of the same type 6^ 

q. Other things to watch and do 64 

3. The educational survey 65 

a. Extent 65 

b. The public school 66 

c. Part-time and evening schools 68 

d. Private and commercial schools 71 

4. The commercial industrial survey 74 

S- Other forms of education 78 

III. SELECTING THE COURSE 

1. Advisory boards 79 

2. Trade agreements 82 

a. Tentative agreements 83 

b. General agreements S^ 

c. Specific trade agreement S6 

d. Personal agreements 90 

3. Determining the course of study 91 

a. Well organized, highly skilled trades 91 

b. Field for advancement 92 

c. On what does advancement depend? 92 

d. Trade needs determine course 93 

e. Need for skill. 93 

i6s 



OUTLINE 

/, Need of technical knowledge 94 

g. Both skill and technical knowledge needed. . 94 

4. When shall the instruction be given? 95 

a. The day school 96 

b. Three types of day schools 97 

c. The prevocational school 97 

d. The elementary trade school 98 

e. The advanced trade school 102 

/. Part-time and evening classes 103 

5. Where shall the instruction be given? 105 

a. In a special building 105 

b. In the plant during special hours 106 

c. Within and without the plant 106 

d. Reorganization within the plant 107 

e. Master of apprentices 108 

i /. Dangers to be avoided 109 

6. Art in industry no 

7. Unorganized or low-skilled trades 113 

a. Short-unit courses 114 

b. Series of courses 115 

c. Training for alUed industries 116 

d. Allied groups 117 

8. Fitting for a new occupation 118 

a. Related to apprentice's work 119 

b. Not related to student's present work 120 

9. Woman's work 121 

a. Home-making 122 

b. Woman's trade training 124 

10. Training in general efficiency 125 

a. General education in trade schools 127 

b. Civic training 128 

166 



OUTLINE 

c. General education needed for industrial 

efficiency 131 

J. Moral and recreational subjects 134 

IV. SELECTING THE TEACHER 

1. The importance of the teacher 136 

a. The standard 137 

h. The first step in selection 137 

2. The experience of Germany 138 

a. Directors 138 

h. Teachers 139 

c. Summary 140 

3. Training for the American teacher 141 

a. Principles of teaching 141 

h. Trade knowledge 141 

c. The community'§ part 143 

4. Details of a teachers' training course for the 

mechanic 144 

a. Mechanics of teaching 144 

h. Probation period 146 

c. Outhne of work 147 

d. Method of preparing the outline 149 

e. Drawing, mathematics, and other subjects .. 150 

/. Shop practice 151 

g. Practice teaching 152 

5. Training the professional teacher in trade 

subjects 154 

a. Theory 154 

Z>. Trade principles and skill 155 

c. Industrial appreciation 157 

6. Conclusion 160 



